The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on, counterclockwise Intermediate spiral galaxy located 25 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major.
This is a total of 14 hours of imaging. 3/22/2025, 4/9/2025, 4/13/2025 and 4/14/2025. All taken with my Celestron 9.25 telescope on my CGEM II mount with M101 as my goal.
I processed the images using Pixinsight,
Object Designation: Messier 101, NGC 5457
Also known as: Pinwheel galaxy
Constellation: Ursa Major
Object Type: Spiral Galaxy
Distance: 25 million light-years away
Magnitude: 7.9
Discovery: Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues, on November 16, 1781
This final image is:
168 – 5 minute subs at 100 gain – no filter
It is safe to say, I am not happy with either of my work imaging M101. Part of the problem is work, part of the problem is weather and part of the problem is the unknown.
I started trying to get images of M101 – The Pinwheel galaxy in April of 2024 with my Svbony 405cc camera. Keyword here is trying. I tried with and without my Hyperstar. It too grainy no matter what gain I was using.
Somehow, in April, I broke the usb3 connector on my camera. Svbony was great they said they would fix it for free, all I had to do is pay for shipping to and from China. The main problem is they said, plan on being without the camera for 2 months. So I purchased a ZWO ASI2600MC.
Well, let me tell you 26megapixel is AMAZING! But this blog is about the Pinwheel Galaxy. The first thing I found out is my SCT was severely out of collimation. I have a pretty good VLOG about how to collimate using artificial stars. Now with my telescope ready to go, new camera and the mirrors aligned, all I needed was good weather. Well we get maybe once a week, 2 hours here and there… And of course it is always a night I have to get up at 5:30am to catch a train to work. Another story… LOL
Image 1 – May 11, 2024:
This is about 1 hour of 2 minute subs, at 100 gain, at f10 with drifting. Not sure why I had drifting.
Image 2 – May 13, 2024:
This is 8 90 second subs at 0 gain, at f/10 with drifting and cropped. I also had to play with the stars to make them round.
I tried several more times over the next 2 weeks. Cloud were always a problem
Image 3 – May 25, 2024
This image was taken using my Hyperstar. 287 30 second subs at 100 gain and the ROI was 3000×3000. It was tiny at the full 6248 x 4176. First off it was a full moon. I am not sure if the bright spot is from the moon, a refection or what. Then the traveling noise and the clouds that appeared in the middle of things. I did not even bother trying to process this. Waiting for another clear night.
I am still not happy.
And my final image for now, taken 5/29/2024 from midnight to 3am. 3 minute subs at 100 gain using my ASI2600mc
