Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5422  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5474  ·  NGC 5485
M101, Jason Lichter
M101
Powered byPixInsight

M101

Revision title: M101

M101, Jason Lichter
M101
Powered byPixInsight

M101

Revision title: M101

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas is 170,000 light-years across — nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulas. These nebulas are areas of intense star formation within giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant, young clusters of hot, blue, newborn stars trace out the spiral arms.

Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues, discovered the Pinwheel galaxy in 1781. Located 25 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major, M101 has an apparent magnitude of 7.9. It can be spotted through a small telescope and is most easily observed during April.

Comments

Revisions

  • M101, Jason Lichter
    Original
  • Final
    M101, Jason Lichter
    B

B

Title: M101

Description: original data from Spring 2021 + 60x480s of Ha shot in Feb 2022 under a 70% moon in bortle 4

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M101, Jason Lichter

In these collections

Galaxies