Pinwheel Galaxy
The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is approximately 21 million light-years away from Earth. It is a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 and was communicated that year 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 European Space Agency 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. I am looking forward to when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images this beautiful galaxy.
| Object | Pinwheel Galaxy – M101 |
| Link | https://www.shetzers.com/pinwheel-galaxy-m101/ |
| Wiki Link | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_Galaxy |
| Hemisphere | Northern |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Other Names contained in image | Messier 101, M101, NGC 5457 |
| Imaging telescopes or lenses | Takahashi FSQ -106ED4 |
| Imaging cameras | QHY268M |
| Mounts | Software Bisque Paramount MYT |
| Focal reducers | None |
| Software | Software Bisque The Sky X, PHD Lab PHD2, NINA, Viking, PixInsight, Photoshop, Lightroom |
| Filters | Astrodon LRGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance 36mm unmounted. Chroma Technology Narrowband 3nm Ha, SII, OIII – 36mm Unmounted |
| Accessories | Moonlite NightCrawler 35 focuser, Maxdome II, Digital Loggers Pro Switch, Sky Alert Weather Station, Pegagsus Ultimate Powerbox v2, Starlight Xpress filter wheel. |
| Guiding Telescope or Lenses | Orion 60mm Guide Scope |
| Guiding Camera | ZWO ASI224MC Guide Camera |
| Imaging Dates | 4/7/22, 4/8/22, 4/9/22 |
| Frames | Luminance: 45×300″ (3.7h) Gain 25, Photographic Mode, Temp -10C, Bin 1×1 Red: 22×300″ (1.83h) Gain 25, Photographic Mode, Temp -10C, Bin 1×1 Green: 21×300″ (1.75h) Gain 25, Photographic Mode, Temp -10C, Bin 1×1 Blue: 21×300″ (1.75h) Gain 25, Photographic Mode, Temp -10C, Bin 1×1 Ha: 11×1200″ (3.6h) Gain 60, High Gain Mode, Temp -10C, Bin 1×1 |
| Integration | 12h 35′ |
| Darks | 50 |
| Flats | 20 per Filter |
| Flat Darks | 40 |
| Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: | 2 |
| RA center | 210.804796 |
| DEC center | 54.34869964 |
| Pixel scale | 3.76 |
| Resolution | 6280 x 4210 |
| Locations | Sirus 3.5m Observatory, Carbondale Colorado |
| Data source | Backyard |
| Seeing | Average |
| Bortles | 2 |
| Post Processing Techniques | PixInsight to Photoshop to Lightroom |
| Median FWHM Pixels | L 2.829 R 2.525 G 2.569 B 2.585 Ha 2.580 |
Pinwheel Galaxy – M101 was last modified: January 23rd, 2023 by