M101: Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major

Imaged on 3/12/10
Scope: Takahashi FSQ 106N
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Camera SBIG ST-10XME
Exposures: 90 min lum; 30 min each of RGB
Site: Anza Borrego Desert
Temp: 50 degrees, strong winds, average seeing

Located about 25 million light years away, M101 is enormous - 170,000 ly across (almost twice the size of the Milky Way).

The small fuzzy above and to the right is NGC 5477, a 14th magnitude spiral galaxy.