This is Messier 94, the bright face-on spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici. Note the outer faint ring of starlight. The galaxy was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781. Charles Messier observed and catalogued it that year. This is a stack of just 5 x 8-minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 through the SharpStar 140mm refractor at f/6.5 with no field flattener.
The galaxy trio M98 (at right near the star 6 Comae), M99, the Coma Pinwheel (at bottom), and M100 (at upper left), captured in a deep blue twilight sky on June 4, 2019. The pair of NGC 4602 and NGC 4298 are left of M99 at bottom left. Images taken later under darker skies were plagued by haze moving in. Despite the bright sky galaxies as faint as magnitude 14.5 are recorded. This is a stack of 6 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the Canon 6D MkII and Astro-Physics Traveler 105mm apo refractor at f/5.8 with the Hotech field flattener. Shot for a book illustration.
Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major, a classic face-on spiral galaxy, large and obvious in binoculars. The odd galaxy at bottom is NGC 5474. This is a stack of 9 x 10-minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800 through the Astro-Physics 130mm apo refractor at f/6 with the 6x7 field flattener lens.
