With its royal blue spiral arms, pink-red hydrogen alpha regions, and dark central dust lanes, this face-on galaxy is one of the most popular deep-sky targets for astronomy enthusiasts to photograph. The Pinwheel Galaxy, which is also known as Messier 101, is almost twice the size of our Milky Way galaxy and contains a whopping 1 trillion stars! For reference, our galaxy only contains a mere several hundred billion stars!
Acquisition Date: March 31, 2021–April 11, 2021
Acquisition Site: Backyard
Image Details: No Filter 410 x 180s (20h 30m), Radian Triad Ultra Filter 217 x 180s (10h 51m)
Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro, Takahashi TOA-130NFB, AP1200GTO, Radian Triad Ultra Filter 2″