Tag Archives: Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel Galaxy Neighborhood

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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.

The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

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The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) in Ursa Major

  • 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)

About 21 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Big Dipper), the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) offers one of the finest examples of a spiral galaxy. Oriented face-on, its spiral structure displays colorful red, white, and blue regions rich in new star formation. The red regions denote vast areas of molecular hydrogen gas, where new stars are born, and the bright blue areas shine from thousands of hot young stars. Astronomers estimate that the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) is 170,000 light-years in diameter and contains a trillion stars.

The Pinwheel Galaxy has hosted an unusual number of supernovas, with a total of four being observed since 1909. Encounters with five prominent companion galaxies have also led to some obvious distortions of the spiral arms.