M100 is a classic, grand design, face-on spiral galaxy. It lies about 55 million light-years from Earth and is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, being one of it's largest members. It is difficult to image process because of its wide dynamic range. The spiral arms are faint and it has a tiny bright core. The edge-on spiral galaxy at upper left is NGC 4312 and numerous elliptical galaxies are also seen in the image.
Image Data:
Telescope/Mount: Celestron Compustar C14 with Astro Physics 0.75x focal reducer (f/8.3).
Camera: SBIG STL 11000M with Baader Planetarium L,R,G,B filters.
SBIG AO-L Adaptive Optics at 4.0 Hz.
Location: Pommier Observatory, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Dates: 2016-04-08 through 2016-05-01.
Exposures: L:R:G:B:=250:80:80:80minutes=8 hours 10 minutes total exposure.
See additional astrophotographs at www.rodpommier.com