M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy |
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| M101 is also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy.
While I personally first heard of M33 being called the Pinwheel,
I definitely see the pinwheel shape more dramatically in M101
than in M33. NGC 5474, the oddly-shaped galaxy to the left of this image, is one of M101's companion galaxies. Its odd shape is likely due to gravitational interactions with its much larger neighbor. M101 is a pretty tough galaxy to see visually. I don't recall any instance to date of having seen it so far. |
| Constellation: Ursa Major |
| When Visible: February - May |
| Distance: 27 Million Light-years |
| Date: May 2006 |
| Location: West Chester, Ohio |
| Exposure Details: L: 18 x 10 Minutes binned 1x1 R: 12 x 5 Minutes binned 1x1 G: 12 x 5 Minutes binned 1x1 B: 12 x 5 Minutes binned 1x1 |
| Equipment Used: Takahashi FSQ-106N operating at f/8 with an Extender-Q on a Takahashi EM200 Temma 2 mount. SBIG ST-8XE camera with CFW-8a filter wheel and Astrodon LRGB filters. |
| Acquisition Software : MaximDL, TheSky6, CCDAutopilot |
| Processing Software: MaximDL, Photoshop CS, IrFanView |