What do you know? You could actually shoot something like that from a Bortle 8 sky like mine with only a DSLR and a telephoto lens 😃
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, from my Bortle 8 city, Suez, Egypt.
5.5 hrs of data. I had to discard maybe the same amount due to different orientations / out-of-frame shots. I'm happy about the end results.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Mini
Nikon D3500
Nikkor 70-300 at 250mm

Stacking done in Siril
Post processing done in Siril, Starnet++, Adobe Photoshop