M100, also known as NGC 4321, is a spiral galaxy located 55 million light years away in the southern part of the constellation Coma Berencies and is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo cluster. This galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 10.1 and is 160,000 light-years in diameter. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain on March 15, 1781 and added to the Messier catalog after Charles Messier made observations of his own on April 13, 1781.
Telescope: Stellarvue Raptor SVR105 @ f/7
Accessories: Stellarvue SFF7-21 flattener; Dew control by Dew Buster; Alnitak Flat-Man
Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2
Camera: QSI583wsg CCD @ -10.0C
Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar via PHD
Filters: Astrodon Tru-balance E-Series Generation II LRGB
Exposure: 65 x 6min.(L); 15 x 4min.(R); 15 x 4min.(G); 15 x 4min.(B); L binned 1x1, RGB binned 2x2
Acquisition: ImagesPlus Camera Control v4.3
Processing: Calibration, DDP in Images Plus v4.5; Registration in Registar
Post-processing: ImagesPlus 4.5; Adobe Photoshop CS5
Date(s): April 18, 19, May 9, 2012
SQM reading (begin - end): N1:18.90 - 19.29; N2:18.78 - 19.46; N3:18.78 - 19.25
Temperature (begin - end): N1:59.4ºF - 52.3ºF; N2:64.2ºF - 53.6ºF; N3:65.7ºF - 55.8ºF
Location: Hendersonville, TN, USA