Tag: Pinwheel

M101 Pinwheel galaxy

April 11, 2024
Galaxy
2 Comments

The Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, is a stunning spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, about 21 million light-years from Earth. With a large, nearly face-on orientation, it displays beautiful, well-defined spiral arms filled with bright blue star clusters and reddish regions of active star formation. M101 is known for its striking symmetrical structure and massive size, spanning about 170,000 light-years across, making it almost twice the diameter of our Milky Way.

My first attempt to capture this galaxy was 8 years ago. This time I am equipped with a new camera and significantly improved processing skills:

TelescopeNewtonian 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1170 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 2600MC @-10°C
CorrectorTeleVue Paracorr 2″
FiltersAntlia RGB
Exposure153x180s, Gain 100, bin 1×1,
Date2024-04-11

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

June 1, 2019
Galaxy
2 Comments

Messier 101 is a beautiful spiral galaxy, which can be located in the constellation Ursa Major. If I look back to my older picture, I must admit, it is worth spending a long time and dedicating some capture time for the hydrogen alpha channel.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1060 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR coma corrector
FiltersAstronomik L-1 - UV IR Block Filter
Exposure31x300s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2019-06-01

M101 – Pinwheel Galaxy

May 12, 2016
Galaxy
1 Comment

Pinwheel Galaxy is similar to our own homeland Milky Way Galaxy. It has 170 000 light years in diameter (it takes 170 000 years till the light from one side reaches the other) It’s 21 million light years from the Solar system and is located in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper or Great Bear).

This galaxy is characterized by a high population of H II regions and therefore I adjusted the image acquisition in a way to highlight it. In total, I used four nights to capture this image. The Moon was not bothering and surprisingly, the weather was excellent in the first half of May.  The first night I used it just for the luminance channel, the second and third one for RGB channels, and finally the last one for narrow band image of hydrogen alpha. Ha channel was merged with the R channel and therefore the intensity of H II regions was increased. It’s probably my longest total integration time of any galaxy and it was worth it. See for yourself:

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-40C
Corrector:Baader MPCC
Filters:Baader LRGB and Ha
Exposure:42xL, 300 s, 26xHa, 300s bin 1×1, 27xRGB 200 s, bin 2×2
Date:2016-05-06