Date: April 17, 2009
Location: Victoria Centre Observatory, Observatory Hill, Victoria, BC, Canada

This is a widefield photo of the Whirlpool Galaxy taken through a Borg 101 ED f/4 Astrograph using an unmodified Canon 50D dSLR. Light pollution was a factor this evening, since thin high cloud was reflecting the city lights. This limited my exposure to 30 seconds and also ensured I would not capture the image detail I was hoping for.

Equipment: Borg 101 ED f/4 Astrograph, HEQ5 mount,unmodified Canon 50D dSLR at prime focus.

Photos: 41 x 30 second light frames taken at ISO 1600; 10 dark frames; temperature 6.0°C

Processing:
- ImagesPlus 3.75 - auto dSLR image set processing: raw development/calibration, normalize, grade, align, sigma clipped average combine. Aggressive digital development & moderate sharpening applied.
- NeatImage 6.0 Pro - auto noise reduction.
- ACDSee Pro 2.5 - reduce colour depth to 24 bit, convert to jpg, crop and reduce file dimensions