Pinwheel Galaxy

Photographers: Andrea Iorio; Fernando LinsalataSummary Authors: Andrea Iorio; Fernando LinsalataThe Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101 or NGC 5457, is a face-on spiral galaxy (Sc type), found some 21 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. M101 is considerably larger than our Milky Way, having a diameter of 170,000 light-years and around a trillion stars. It has a high population of H-alpha (H II) regions, many of which are very bright. These regions, red/pink spots in the image, are ionized by large numbers of extremely bright and hot young stars.

Images acquired during March and April of 2024 under Bortle 7/8 skies.Photo Details: Total acquisition time of about 38-40 hours, using 3 rigs (set ups) with 3 different sampling resolutions, approximately 22 hours of RGB (red, green, blues) filtering, approximately 18 hours of Ha (H-alpha) filtering. Rig 1: ZWO ASI533MC Pro Skywatcher 130PDS f5, with 1X coma corrector Optolong L-Pro and L-eNhance filters, Skywatcher EQM-35 Pro. Rig 2: TS Photoline 60ED, ZWO ASI715MC, Svbony CLS and Optolong L-eNhance filters, Skywatcher EQM-35 Pro. Rig 3: ZWO ASI533MC Pro Skywatcher 200PDS f5, with 1X coma corrector Optolong L-Pro and L-eXtreme filters, Skywatcher EQ6R Pro.Related Links:Pinwheel Spiral Galaxy in Ursa MajorAndrea's Website