Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5457
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone), Douglas J Struble
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone)
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone), Douglas J Struble
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone)
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone)

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Description

Broadband is the hardest deep space astrophotography for me here in my red zone. I piled on more integration time adding it on to last year's data, as this may be the last time I work on M101 from here.

M101 is a large face-on spiral galaxy located 22 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. At magnitude +7.9, it can be glimpsed in binoculars or small telescopes from dark sites. However, this galaxy suffers from low surface brightness and in bad seeing conditions or light polluted areas is sometimes difficult to spot even with 200mm (8-inch) scopes. M101 is best seen from the Northern Hemisphere during the months of March, April and May.

M101 is also known as the Pinwheel galaxy and was discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781. He described it as "nebula without star, very obscure and pretty large, 6' to 7' in diameter, between the left hand of Boötes and the tail of the great Bear." He communicated this to Charles Messier, who verified its position and then included it in his catalogue as one of the final entries.

Locating the part of sky where M101 is positioned is easy, since it's close to the handle of the bowl that forms the Plough or Big Dipper asterism of Ursa Major. The Pinwheel galaxy is located at one corner of an equatorial triangle formed with second magnitude stars Mizar (ζ UMa - mag. +2.2) and Alkaid (η UMa - mag. +1.8). M101 is 5.5 degrees east of Mizar (the celebrated naked eye double star) and 5.5 degrees northeast of Alkaid.

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    M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone), Douglas J Struble
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    M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone), Douglas J Struble
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Description: Stellarvue Stellar Shot of the Week 6-11-2019

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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in HaLRGB (White Zone), Douglas J Struble

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Messier Objects