Pinwheel Galaxy & Neighbors

Full-frame image of the Pinwheel Galaxy includes some neighboring galaxies.

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: Yes
  • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frames: 41, 300-s subframes stacked (205 min.)
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time(s): 3.42 h, 205 min. (41 x 5 min.)
  • ISO: 800
  • Processing: Photoshop CC
  • Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

This full-frame image depicts the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) and some nearby galaxies:

  • NGC 5473 (right); Distance: 109 Mly
  • NGC 5485 (upper right); Distance: 91.1 Mly
  • NGC 5477 (above and to the right of M101): Distance: 20.9 Mly
  • NGC 5474 (top left); Distance: 21.2 Mly

The gravitational influence of the Pinwheel Galaxy is most evident in NGC 5474, which has an off-center nucleus possibly caused by a previous close encounter with M101.

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