M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy
Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues, discovered the Pinwheel galaxy in 1781. Located 25 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major, M101 has an apparent magnitude of 7.9. It can be spotted through a small telescope and is most easily observed during April.
The giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas is 170,000 light-years across — nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulas. These nebulas are areas of intense star formation within giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant, young clusters of hot, blue, newborn stars trace out the spiral arms.
See https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-101-the-pinwheel-galaxy
Captured July 1, 2022
Integration time of just of 2 hours.
Camera: ZWO ASI178MC uncooled.
Telescope: Willaim Optics Zenithstar 61
The giant spiral disk of stars, dust and gas is 170,000 light-years across — nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulas. These nebulas are areas of intense star formation within giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant, young clusters of hot, blue, newborn stars trace out the spiral arms.
See https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-101-the-pinwheel-galaxy
Captured July 1, 2022
Integration time of just of 2 hours.
Camera: ZWO ASI178MC uncooled.
Telescope: Willaim Optics Zenithstar 61