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| 10.1'' reflector Mallincam DS432cTEC with Nebular filter Exposure = 15 sec, Gain = 80/250, Live Stacked frames = 90 Beautiful face-on spiral; it doesn't take long for the spiral arms to reveal themselves. Numerous other NGCs can be seen in this image; NGC 5461 and 5462, ionized hydrogen regions that appear as greenish-dots/smudges in the lower faint spiral arm at 5 and 6 o'clock respectively. NGC 5471, another HII region, appears further down about halfway to the bottom edge of the frame, as a bright green "star". Another appearing as a greenish star is NGC 5455 at about 2 o'clock. And there are more HII regions appearing in the spiral arms above the core, all greenish in tint. Overall apparent size of the galaxy is approaching 20 arc minutes. North at 8 o'clock, East at 5 o'clock. |
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| 10.1'' reflector Mallincam DS432cTEC with Nebular filter Exposure = 15 sec, Gain = 80/250, Live Stacked frames = 90 This image is taken from the same exposure data as the previous image, post-processed to increase contrast in the outer spiral arms making them more visible. Many of the HII regions previously mentioned are now connected via the arms. Notice faint hints of arms appearing quite some distance from the core, in the 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock directions. A magnitude 14 dwarf galaxy, NGC 5477, appears at the bottom center-left of the frame as a faint smudge (not apparent in the first image). Listed at 20 million light years away, the dwarf is the same distance away as M101 and is a companion to it. Towards the right edge of the frame and a little up is a tiny 16th magnitude fuzzy ball, galaxy PGC 2464645. |