A number of years ago (2006 to be exact) I took an poor image of M101. Despite it being a poor image I could see some arms in the outer portion of M101 that were very faint. I have looked at many images of M101 since and I can see those faint arms, but just barely.
I decided back in 2006 that I wanted to re-image M101 with the intent of exposing the faint arms more clearly. Just this month was I able to do so -- thanks to Ray Gralak letting me use his scope at NMS.
So I present my image of M101 with it's faint outer arms for your viewing. Please remember that I am not a galaxy imager and I do not know how to process galaxy data well. The colors may not be as rich as other images of M101 because I had to increase the luminance to show the faint arms.
http://www.tvdavisastropics.com/astr...s-1_000028.htm
Please let me know what you think.
Tom