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Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), revisited >

The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

3/22
ASI2600MM Pro, 950mm, f/3.8, 6.8h (R/G/B 3x66m, Lum: 1.6h, Ha: 1.8h)

The Pinwheel Galaxy M101 with a diameter of about 170.000 lightyears is only a little smaller in size than Andromeda, but at a distance of about 16 million lightyears it is much smaller in our sky.

The red spots are clouds of ionized hydrogen and indicate star forming regions.

With a focal length of about 1000mm the full image looked like this:

In May 2025 I imaged this galaxy once more, but using a planetary camera (ASI715MC) and the fast telescope. This is the result with a total of 8.5h integration time:

Back in 2022 I tried to image M101 with my 580mm APO and a total integration time of about 11 hours (3x12x300s RGB, 54x180s Lum, 12x900s Ha), this was the outcome: