M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy (Drag your mouse over the image to see the galaxies labeled.)

  
 
 
Home
New Images
Galleries
    Auroras
    Chrono Film
    Chrono DSLR
    Clusters
    Galaxies
    Nebulas
    Misc.
    Pool
Equipment
Links
Credits
 
   
  • RA: 14:03.2
  • Dec: +54:21
  • Magnitude: 7.9
  • Distance: 27,000,000 ly
  • Size:  22.0 arc min
  • Constellation:  Ursa Major
  • Scope: Orion ED80 f/7
  • Autoguider:  ST-4 in faint mode
  • Sky conditions:  Average transparency and seeing
  • Camera: Hutech modified Canon 300D
  • Exposure:  10 x 8minutes ISO800
  • Date:  July 2, 2008
Comments:  I have identified the galaxies that I could in the mouseover.  The night was cool (near 60F) but I was dodging high thin clouds.  M101 was among the first "spiral nebulae" identified as such by William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse.  It is the brightest of a group of at least 9 galaxies.  On photographs M101 is revealed as one of the most prominent Grand Design spirals in the sky.  While quite symmetric visually and in very short exposures which show only the central region, it is of remarkable unsymmetry with its core being displaced from the center of the disk and has been noted as a "Spiral with One Heavy Arm".