Galaxies
The Pinwheel Galaxy
The Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101), a face-on spiral in Ursa Major 21 million light-years away, photographed by Pete Lawrence.
Target details
The Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101) is a face-on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, about 21 million light-years away. At 170,000 light-years across it's roughly the same size as the Milky Way. Its disc holds around 100 billion Suns' worth of mass, with a small central bulge of about 3 billion. M101 is known for its many large, bright H II regions – clouds of hydrogen lit up by young stars.
Capture details
Data captured 24th & 25th March, 2017.
61x 8 minute exposures at ISO200.
Equipment details
Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Nikon d7100
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II
Processing details
This image was processed in Pixinsight & Lightroom.
Quick facts
- What is The Pinwheel Galaxy?
- The Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101) is a face-on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, about 21 million light-years away. At 170,000 light-years across it's roughly the same size as the Milky Way.
- Where is it in the sky?
- In the constellation Ursa Major.
- What are its catalogue names?
- M101
- When was this photo taken?
- 25 March 2017
- What equipment was used?
- Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF, NEQ6 Pro, Nikon d7100, Skywatcher ST-80, QHY5L-II
- Where was it taken from?
- Lisburn, Northern Ireland.