M101

Here is a picture of the M101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy). The Pinwheel Galaxy is a face on spiral galaxy that is about 21 million light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (the constellation that contains the Big Dipper). It is one of the larger galaxies in the local group measuring about 170 thousand light years in diameter (compared to the 100 thousand light year diameter of the Milkyway galaxy). I have included both the wide field and cropped version of the image.

February 26-27, 2012
Location: Rancho Hidalgo, NM
Telescope: TEC-140 (F7)
Camera: SBIG ST-8300M
Mount: AP900 GTO
Luminance: 24x10 minutes (binned 1x1)
Red: 8x10 minutes (binned 2x2)
Green: 8x10 minutes (binned 2x2)
Blue: 8x10 minutes (binned 2x2)