M101

Another image taken with the 1.5-meter telescope. This galaxy, Messier 101, is located about 24 million light-years distant. This image was obtained in late May for Astronomy Camp. It is a composite of 45, sixty second exposures. Each image had a Richardson-Lucy deconvolution performed to sharpen it. Then, after they were all aligned and median combined, five seperate TIF images were produced, each onestretched to show fainter areas. Then each TIFF was added as a layer in Photoshop and the burned out areas masked to reveal the bright details. A final contrast adjustment and unsharp mask produced the image you see here.