ScienceDownEast - ScienceDownEast Astrophotography - M101 Pinwheel Galaxy (Latest images)

M101 Unfiltered (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 17:55:00 -0300

The Pinwheel Galaxy M101 as seen from my backyard. The Pinwheel Galaxy is a face-on, counterclockwise intermediate spiral galaxy located 21 million light-years (6.4 megaparsecs) from Earth 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.
M101 is a large galaxy, with a diameter of 252,000 light-years. By comparison, the Milky Way has a diameter of 87,400 light-years. It has around a trillion stars. It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small central bulge of about 3 billion solar masses.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

The next image shows annotated view of its location.

Exposure	47 x 600 sec = 7.83 hours
Gain	100
Camera	ToupTek ATR2600C [6224 x 4168]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm
Filter	None
Capture	KStars on Unbuntu 24.04 on a Mele Quieter 4C
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2025-06-25,27
Processing	Processed in PixInsight.
SetiAstro Automatic DBE, SpectrophotometricColourCalibration, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (GHS) (using Blair MacDonald's excellent YT Tutorial), StarXTerminator, PixelMath recombination ~((~stars)*(~starless)), Annotate Image

Date: June 29, 2025

M101 Unfiltered - annotated (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 19:07:46 -0300

The Pinwheel Galaxy M101 (or NGC 5457) as seen from my backyard. The Pinwheel Galaxy is a face-on, counterclockwise intermediate spiral galaxy located 21 million light-years (6.4 megaparsecs) from Earth 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.
M101 is a large galaxy, with a diameter of 252,000 light-years. By comparison, the Milky Way has a diameter of 87,400 light-years. It has around a trillion stars. It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small central bulge of about 3 billion solar masses.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

The next image shows annotated view of its location.

Exposure	47 x 600 sec = 7.83 hours
Gain	100
Camera	ToupTek ATR2600C [6224 x 4168]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm
Filter	None
Capture	KStars on Unbuntu 24.04 on a Mele Quieter 4C
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2025-06-25,27
Processing	Processed in PixInsight.
SetiAstro Automatic DBE, SpectrophotometricColourCalibration, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (GHS) (using Blair MacDonald's excellent YT Tutorial), StarXTerminator, PixelMath recombination ~((~stars)*(~starless)), Annotate Image

Date: June 28, 2025

Supernova 2023ixf in M101 the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

Supernova 2023ixf lights up the Pinwheel Galaxy M101 as seen from my backyard.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

The next image shows annotated view of its location.

Exposure	94x180 sec = 4.7 hours
ISO	3200
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm
Filter	None
Capture	KStars on an Odroid-N2
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2023-05-22
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and GraXpert.

Date: March 26, 2025

Supernova 2023ixf in M101 the Pinwheel Galaxy Annotated (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

Supernova 2023ixf lights up the Pinwheel Galaxy M101 as seen from my backyard.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	94x180 sec = 4.7 hours
ISO	3200
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm
Filter	None
Capture	KStars on an Odroid-N2
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2023-05-22
Processing	Processed in PixInsight, GraXpert and Preview

Date: March 26, 2025

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 12:55:47 -0300

Back to the past - this is the view 21 million years ago of the Pinwheel Galaxy M101 as seen from my backyard.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	396*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm
Filter	Triad Ultra Quad Narrow band filter
Capture	KStars on an Odroid-N2
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-05-20
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Mon, 18 May 2020 20:56:52 -0300

Back to the past - this is the view 21 million years ago of the Pinwheel Galaxy M101 as seen from my backyard. 13.25 hours exposure.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	159*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm
Filter	Triad Ultra Quad Narrow band filte
Capture	KStars on an Odroid-N2
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-05-18
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy Cropped (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Mon, 18 May 2020 20:56:33 -0300

Back to the past - this is the view 21 million years ago of the Pinwheel Galaxy M101 as seen from my backyard. 13.25 hours exposure.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	159*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm
Filter	Triad Ultra Quad Narrow band filte
Capture	KStars on an Odroid-N2
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-05-18
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Wed, 08 May 2019 12:46:11 -0300

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy
Exposure 55 x 60 sec exposure
ISO 3200 Camera Nikon Z7 [8256 x 5504]
Optics Prime focus of a 10" Meade SCT f/10, 2500 mm focal length on a Celestron CGEM DX mount.
Location St. Croix Observatory, Nova Scotia.
Date 2019-05-06
Processing Captured using the CamRanger intervalometer. Processed in PixInsight and tweaked in Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

M101 (M101 Pinwheel Galaxy)

Mon, 14 May 2018 01:32:34 -0300

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy
Exposure 301 sec exposure
ISO 800
Camera Nikon D800 [7360 x 4912]
Optics Prime focus of a 10" Meade SCT f/10, 2500 mm focal length on a Celestron CGEM DX mount.
Location Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date 2018-05-01
Processing Captured using Kstars EKOS 2.9.5 and indilib v1.7.0. Processed in PixInsight and tweaked in Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025