Tag Archives: The Pinwheel Galaxy

M101

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years (six megaparsecs) away in the constellation Ursa Major, first discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, and communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries.
On February 28, 2006, NASA and the ESA released a very detailed image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, which was the largest and most detailed image of a galaxy by Hubble Space Telescope at the time. The image was composed from 51 individual exposures, plus some extra ground-based photos.
On August 24, 2011, a Type Ia supernova, SN 2011fe, was discovered in M101.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Sky-Watcher ED80
Imaging cameras: Canon 1100D
Mounts: Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro SyncScan
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Finder 8×50
Guiding cameras: QHYCCD QHY 5
Software: Adobe Photoshop CC, AstroSurf IRIS v5.59, Pleaides Astrophoto Pixinsight LE
Dates: March 7, 2014
Frames: 16×600″ ISO800 bin 1×1
Integration: 2.7 hours
Darks: ~6
Flats: ~15
Bias: ~49

Author: Pavel Syrin
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 22 Sep 2014

M101: Pinwheel Galaxy

M101 is a relatively large galaxy compared to the Milky Way. With a diameter of 170,000 light-years it is seventy percent larger than the Milky Way. It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small central bulge of about 3 billion solar masses.

M101 is noted for its high population of H II regions, many of which are very large and bright. H II regions usually accompany the enormous clouds of high density molecular hydrogen gas contracting under their own gravitational force where stars form. H II regions are ionized by large numbers of extremely bright and hot young stars; those in M101 are capable of creating hot superbubbles. In a 1990 study, 1264 H II regions were cataloged in the galaxy. Three are prominent enough to receive New General Catalogue numbers – NGC 5461, NGC 5462, and NGC 5471.

M101 is a asymmetrical due to the tidal forces from interactions with its companion galaxies. These gravitational interactions compress interstellar hydrogen gas, which then triggers strong star formation activity in M101’s spiral arms that can be detected in ultraviolet images.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Ian King Ikharos 8″ RC
Imaging cameras: Atik 314L+
Mounts: Software Bisque Paramount MX
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope
Guiding cameras: QHYCCD QHY5
Software: PixInsight, Software Bisque CCDSoft 5, Software Bisque TheSkyX, iLanga AstroPlanner, Matt Thomas’s CCDCommander
Filters: Baader Luminance 36mm, Baader Red, Green, Blue 36mm
Accessories: Atik EFW2
Dates: March 15, 2013
Frames: 100×300″
Integration: 8.3 hours

Author: Colin McGill
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 04 July 2014

The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years (six megaparsecs) away in the constellation Ursa Major.
M101 is a relatively large galaxy compared to the Milky Way. With a diameter of 170,000 light-years it is seventy percent larger than the Milky Way. It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small bulge of about 3 billion solar masses.

Another remarkable property of this galaxy is its huge and extremely bright H II regions, of which a total of about 3,000 can be seen on photographs. H II regions usually accompany the enormous clouds of high density molecular hydrogen gas contracting under their own gravitational force where stars form. H II regions are ionized by large numbers of extremely bright and hot young stars.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: GSO Newton 8″ f/5
Imaging cameras: Canon EOS 350D / No filter
Mounts: Sky-Watcher EQ6 Syntreck
Guiding telescopes or lenses: GSO Viewfinder 8X50
Guiding cameras: Orion SSAG
Focal reducers: TS Koma Korrektor
Software: PHD guiding, photoshop
Filters: Astronomik 12nm Hydrogen Alpha Filter ha12nm ccd clip, Astronomik CLS CCD Filter
Dates: Feb. 9, 2013, Feb. 18, 2013, March 11, 2013
Frames:
Astronomik CLS CCD Filter: 10×240″ ISO800
Astronomik CLS CCD Filter: 34×300″ ISO800
Astronomik 12nm Hydrogen Alpha Filter ha12nm ccd clip: 18×300″ ISO800
Integration: 5.0 hours
Darks: ~12
Flats: ~12
Bias: ~12

Author: Fredéric Segato

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
9 April 2014

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