M101 (Kirby Collins)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: HD122471 · HD122865 · M 101 · NGC 5422 · NGC 5447 · NGC 5449 · NGC 5450 · NGC 5451 · NGC 5453 · NGC 5455 · NGC 5457 · NGC 5461 · NGC 5462 · NGC 5471 · NGC 5473 · NGC 5474 · NGC 5477 · NGC 5484 · NGC 5485 · Pinwheel galaxy

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M101

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M101

M101, between Ursa Major and Bootes, was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781, who described it simply as "Nebula without star, very obscure and pretty large." Admiral Smythe in 1844 began to glimpse its true nature, writing "It is one of those globular nebulae that seem to be caused by a vast agglomeration of stars, rather than by a mass of diffused luminous matter; and though the idea of too dense a crowd may intrude, yet the paleness tells of its inconceivable distance, and probable discreteness."

Today we know it as one of the grand examples of a spiral galaxy. Seen almost face on, it has a bright central nucleus surrounded by multiple arms filled with knots and hints of structure. Several of the brighter knots are globular clusters that have been given their own NGC numbers. M101 is 25 million light years away, and is almost twice the size of our Milky Way galaxy, containing an estimated one trillion stars.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7596943
PixInsight job	0THN7I4CO08UVSKFN4D84W8EFKV3MGG5
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	14h03m17s.38
RA (top/left)	14h06m20s.65
RA (top/right)	14h08m05s.88
RA (bottom/right)	14h00m06s.25
RA (bottom/left)	13h58m39s.58

Dec (center)	+54°19′44″.1
Dec (top/left)	+53°24′33″.6
Dec (top/right)	+55°04′52″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	+55°14′36″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	+53°33′52″.2

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M101

M101

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M101

M101

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Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

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