Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5473  ·  NGC 5477
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, Richard Pattie
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, Richard Pattie
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

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Description

The Pinwheel Galaxy (AKA Messier 101) is a face-on spiral galaxy at a distance of 21 million light-years from earth in the constellation Ursa Major. First discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781, it was communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries. M101 is a large galaxy, with a diameter of 170,000 light-years. By comparison, the Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light years. It has around a trillion stars, ten times the amount in the Milky Way. [Source: Adapted from Wikipedia]

I didn't know if I'd be able to get an acceptable image of M101with my 70mm refractor, but I had fairly dark skies and some decent seeing, so I'm pleased with how it turned out.

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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, Richard Pattie