M106 Galaxy in Canes Venatici (14 April 2021)

This is my entry for April's competition. It is of M106 (aka NGC 4258) and other nearby galaxies. I collected all the data from my backgarden in Loughborough (East Midlands, UK) on the night of 14 April 2021. Full details below.

Frames

• 80× 300-s light frames (Gain 900)
• 6 h 40 min total exposure time
• Full use of calibration frames (darks, flats and dark flats)

Equipment

• Explore Scientific ED 102 mm Apo f/7 refractor
• Sky-Watcher EQ6-R PRO SynScan GOTO equatorial mount
• Altair Hypercam 294C PRO colour fan-cooled camera
• Altair quad-band one-shot colour (OSC) 2″ filter
• Revelation Adjustable Field Flattener
• Altair 60mm guide scope
• Altair GPCAM2 AR0130 mono guide camera

Software

• Sharpcap
• PHD2
• DeepSkyStacker
• Photoshop
• Gradient XTerminator