Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5447  ·  NGC 5449  ·  NGC 5450  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5453  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5462  ·  NGC 5471  ·  NGC 5473  ·  NGC 5477  ·  NGC 5484  ·  NGC 5485  ·  Pinwheel galaxy
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy #5, Molly Wakeling
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Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy #5, Molly Wakeling
Powered byPixInsight

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Description

Another late night at the observatory! Decided to grab some galaxy images this time. There aren't many galaxies that are large enough for the 5-inch refractor, but this one is decently sized.

This is M101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy. I had a lot of noise issues processing this one, so I'm not entirely happy...I'll image it some more at some point.

M101 is a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major (which includes the Big Dipper asterism), and it lies 21 million lightyears behind it. It's about the same size as our own galaxy, and hosts numerous star-forming regions (the red blotches). There are a few other galaxies in this image as well.

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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy #5, Molly Wakeling