M101

This large galaxy has a huge brightness range, which makes it a challenge to process. I once saw a Palomar glass plate of this object which showed the huge range quite well, because negative film has a non-linear response at the very bright end.
I posted this shot that I did last night as a negative. It shows the very faint extensions better than a normal image. It also brings back memories of the old film days before CCDs. Note the numerous tiny background galaxies.

AP 17" F8 Astrograph
STL11K camera
40 x 5 minute Luminance
AP1600 mount

Rolando

Attached Image:

That is oh, so nice, Rolando.
That 17" aperture makes it one competent performer.
My best regards,

dan kowall

Wonderful. I just finished processing my version with the same orientation and your version confirms my suspicion of galaxies in the frame. Your version leaves no doubt. Are you planning adding RGB data?

Chris

Great! Yes indeed those background galaxies. And recalling the early days, small vis scope and how hard galaxies were to find... thinking that were therefore rare. Now realize, point Anywhere and galaxies are certainly in the field. It's a populous Universe! Tom