M101 and friends

Wow! After a very looooong hiatus from any astro activity, I couldn't be more thankful that I had an opportunity to go out and return to astro-imaging. Even though my gears are not suitable for galaxies and small objects, I tried to visit my old favorite Pinwheel Galaxy. No planning, no messy set-up, just shoot and go. It was a pleasure enough for me to go to a dark site, bring out my gears and shoot whatever there is. The cloudless night sky was worth the back-breaking ordeal of bringing up my gears to the hilltop. Polaris was difficult to find against the full grown trees and I had to find a good spot to do a good polar alignment. I tried shooting luminance frames of M78 while waiting for M101 to rise above the treetops. Past midnight, the pinwheel galaxy was already well placed and I got 60 minutes worth of luminance and 15 minutes each of color frames. It was a no surprise that I forgot how to process the frames after several years of no-astro activity. I had to refresh myself of the processing techniques and procedures. So, this image is more of an experiment in jolting my memory in astro-processing!