M101( Pinwheel Galaxy) (Ben Hayes)

M101( Pinwheel Galaxy)

Revision title: M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy)

I’m making slow progress processing the galaxy data collected with the vintage 8” LX200 SCT. Here’s my attempt at M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. The first set of data was collected on March 15 and 20, 2023 before super nova SN2023ixf. The second set of data was collected on May 24 & 25, 2023, almost a week after Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki discovered it. Rather than bore you with multiple posts of the same target, everything is combined into this one.

It fascinating to ponder that the light we are seeing today from super nova SN 2023xif comes from a stellar explosion that happened 21.7 million years ago, during the Miocene period when kelp forests and grasslands were just developing on Earth. SN 2023xif is long gone by now and it has taken this long for its light to reach us. That’s cool to think about.

IMAGES

A. Wide-field view of M101 taken on March 26, 2023 using William Optics RedCat51 apochromatic refractor telescope (249mm focal length) and ASI294MC color camera.

B. Narrow-field view of M101 taken before super nova SN2023xif. Data collected on March 15 & 20, 2023 using Meade 8” LX200 “classic” SCT telescope with Celestron 0.63X corrector (1246 mm focal length). 118 light frames @ 180s each for a total integration time of ∼6 hours. Additional acquisition details are provided at bottom of image.

C. Narrow-field view of M101 taken after super nova SN2023xif. Data collected on May 24 & 24 , 2023 using Meade 8” LX200 “classic” SCT with Starizona 0.63x Corrector IV (1431mm focal length). 141 light frames @ 180s each for a total integration time of ∼7 hours. Additional acquisition details are provided at bottom of image.

D. Animated GIF showing M101 before and after the super nova SN2023xif.

E. A composite of wide and narrow field images of M101, comparing the before and after super nova SN2023xif appearance.

F. Simplified image of M101 after SN2023xif - 141 light frames @180s each (∼7 hrs integration time) collected on May 24 & 25, 203.. It is the same as image C but with out the acquisition details.

B

Title: M101 before SN2023ixf

Description: Image of M101 taken on March 15 and 20, 2023 - before SN2023ixf - using 8" Meade LX200 classic. 141 RGB light frames @ 180s each (7 hrs 3 min integration time). Additional acquisition details provided at bottom of image.

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: M101 after SN2023ixf

Description: Image of M101 taken on May 24 & 25, 2025 - after SN2023ixf - using 8" Meade LX200 SCT with Starizona SCT Corrector IV (0.63X). 118 RGB light frames @ 180s each (5 hrs 54 min integration time). Additional acquisition details provided at bottom of image.

Uploaded: ...

D

Title: Animated image of M101 showing appearance of super nova SN2023ixf in outer arm of galaxy

Uploaded: ...

E

Title: Composite of wide- and narrow-field images of M101, comparing the galaxy's appearance before and after SN2023ixf

Uploaded: ...

F

Title: M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy)

Description: Taken May 24 & 25, 2023, after super nova SN2023ixf. Acquisition details are shown at the bottom of image C.

Uploaded: ...

Cloudy Nights

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	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

	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

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	7926073
PixInsight job	YKGFO94K72QALK7FV72O6C5B3LS2SIPH
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	14h03m08s.971
RA (top/left)	14h04m57s.965
RA (top/right)	14h03m28s.865
RA (bottom/right)	14h01m18s.894
RA (bottom/left)	14h02m48s.737

Dec (center)	+54°22′54″.25
Dec (top/left)	+54°16′25″.30
Dec (top/right)	+54°39′49″.81
Dec (bottom/right)	+54°29′15″.69
Dec (bottom/left)	+54°05′59″.32

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):