| M 101 Galaxy (NGC 5457) M101 is located in Ursa Major (The Great Bear). This spiral galaxy, also called "The Pinwheel Galaxy", is magnitude 7.92 and is 28.6' x 26.5' in size. This shows up well in medium sized scopes at a dark sky site. Many background galaxies are visible in this image. M101 is 27 million lights years distant. There are serveal backgroubd galaies visable through the arms and around M101 down to a magnitude of 16-18. |
| Telescope / Lens | TEC 140mm f/7 |
| Mount Type | Astro-Physics 1200 |
| Camera | ST10XME |
| Filters | Astro-Don LRGB |
| Film | CCD |
| Exposure | LRGB of 4 hours 20 minutes (L=10x20min.; color 5min. sub-frames) -20° C |
| Processing | CCDSoft, AIP4Win, CCDStack & Photoshop CS2 |
| Date | 7-25-2009 |
| Location | Snow Peak, 30
miles SE of Cottage Grove, Oregon 122° 52' 35" W 43° 31' 21" N |
| Conditions | 4670' magnitude 6.0 Skies; Clear & Steady |