Supernova in M101

It was luck that I happened to image M101 on May 18 amidst "galaxy season". and just a day before the announcement of supernova SN2023ixf discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki. I only became aware of the supernova a few days later and thanks to a spring high pressure system managed to image M101 on the 26th despite a high in the sky waxing near first quarter waxing moon.  The two images appear below. The supernova appears in the top spiral arm above and left of the galactic center. 

Equipment used: Celestron 8 on AVX mount, Starizona Night Owl 0.4x Focal Reducer, ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera,  Orion Magnificent Mini autoguider. The 5/18 image was averaged  from 60 x 30s subframes while the 5/26 image was averaged from 30 x 60s subframes. 

M101(5-18-2023)

M101 + SN2023ixf  (5-26-2023)

May Galaxy Season Images Excluding M101

This backdated post is for DSO images acquired  up to during May 2023 except for M101 and its supernova. M101 was imaged by luck on May 18th, the day the supernova was reported and later on May 26th. A post devoted to those images was published May 27.  Setup: Celestron 8/AVX mount, Starizona Night Owl F/4 focal reducer, ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled camera, Orion Magnificent Mini Auto-guider.  Autostakkert!3 and  Paintshop Pro employed for image processing.

Messier 51 (Whirlpool Galaxy)

Messier 61

Messier 104 (Sombrero Galaxy)

Messier 94

Messier 63

Messier 64

Messier 49