Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, John Kulin
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, John Kulin
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

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Description

Well I collected a load of data last year and had to throw it all away because I couldn't get rid of some dust bunnies, so this year I was determined to get it right and hopefully have succeeded.

The processing was so critical that I despaired of ever getting an image that I could be proud of, it really tested me to the limit.

Here's the bumf: -

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years (six megaparsecs) away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. Discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, it was communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries.

On February 28, 2006, NASA and the European Space Agency released a very detailed image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, which was the largest and most detailed image of a galaxy by Hubble Space Telescope at the time. The image was composed of 51 individual exposures, plus some extra ground-based photos.

On August 24, 2011, a Type Ia supernova, SN 2011fe, was discovered in M101.

Discovery

Pierre Méchain, the discoverer of Messier 101, described it as a "nebula without star, very obscure and pretty large, 6' to 7' in diameter, between the left hand of Bootes and the tail of the great Bear. It is difficult to distinguish when one lits the [grating] wires."

William Herschel noted in 1784 that "...in my 7, 10, and 20-feet [focal length] reflectors shewed a mottled kind of nebulosity, which I shall call resolvable; so that I expect my present telescope will, perhaps, render the stars visible of which I suppose them to be composed."

Lord Rosse observed M101 in his 72-inch diameter Newtonian reflector during the second half of the 19th century. He was the first to make extensive note of the spiral structure and made several sketches.

To observe the spiral structure in modern instruments requires a fairly large instrument, very dark skies, and a low power eyepiece.

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    M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, John Kulin
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B

Description: On reflection I felt the background was a little too red so made a small adjustment in the Curves.

Apologies for the update

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M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, John Kulin