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• RA: 14:03.2
• Dec: +54:21
• Magnitude: 7.9
• Distance: 27,000,000 ly
• Size:  22.0 arc min
• Constellation:  Ursa Major

• Scope: 8" SCT at f/10
• Autoguider:  ST-4 in faint mode
• Sky conditions:  good transparency and good seeing
• Film: Kodak Supra 400
• Exposure:  90, 45, 75 minutes
• Date:  April 9, April 26, and May 25, 2003

Comments:  Temperature was in the upper 20s to low 30s.  This was a pretty good night even with the quarter moon.  I pushed the exposure out to 90 minutes and most probably the shot was washed out a bit by moon glow.  I managed to get out on two other cold, "Spring" nights to add to the original exposure.  The April 26 exposure was cut short because high, thin clouds starting coming in.

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".