M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (David Schlaudt)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: M 101 · NGC 5457 · NGC 5477

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy, David Schlaudt

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

M101, aka the Pinwheel Galaxy, was my project for the month of April. The resulting image is a combination of data captured over the course of 5 different nights in the past month and is to date the longest total integration time I’ve captured for any single object.

Galaxies are probably my favorite objects to image, it will never cease to amaze me the scale of what I’m looking at when I first see the object show up on the screen. M101 is a large spiral galaxy with an approximate diameter of 170,000 light-years. At 25 million light years away it is actually relatively close compared to many other large galaxies. One of the things that makes M101 unique to observe is that it is a “face-on” spiral galaxy, meaning from our vantage point we’re looking at the “top” of the galaxy. This allows us to see in awesome detail the structure of the spiral arms which give the object its name, the Pinwheel Galaxy. As with most galaxies M101 is best imaged using broadband filters (LRGB), however, as I’ve done with other galaxies recently, I’ve integrated some Ha narrowband data into the image to highlight the many star forming nebulas located along the galaxies spiral arms.

Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) Imagers
ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M

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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.

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2673107
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

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M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

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