Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5447  ·  NGC 5449  ·  NGC 5450  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5453  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5462  ·  NGC 5471  ·  NGC 5477  ·  Pinwheel galaxy
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M101: Pinwheel Galaxy, Yet Again, drblevy13
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M101: Pinwheel Galaxy, Yet Again

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101: Pinwheel Galaxy, Yet Again, drblevy13
Powered byPixInsight

M101: Pinwheel Galaxy, Yet Again

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Description

Since September of 2020, which was just about when I began astrophotography, I think I have imaged M101 on five separate occasions and reprocessed the data easily over a dozen times.  It has to be one of my favorite objects, and I can't help but point the scope to it when it's overhead just to see... what can I get out of it this time?

Here is my latest attempt.  This time, my biggest concentration was precision guiding.  I really tried to tack down my sky model and PhD2 guiding as much as possible.  Average for this attempt was between 0.3 - 0.4" RMS guiding error in PhD2 with a 6" RMS pointing model on the 10 Micron.  This allowed me to see that M101 actually has quite a few very small galaxies off in the distance; be sure to zoom in so you can see for yourself!

I really hope you enjoy seeing this as much as I did shooting it.  This object for me really is a labor of love!

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M101: Pinwheel Galaxy, Yet Again, drblevy13