Galaxies
Messier 101 in Ursa Major

This spiral galaxy is around 21 million lightyears distant, and with a diameter of around 170,000 lightyears, considerably larger than our own galaxy. It is estimated to contain a trillion stars, and as it seems increasingly likely that most stars have planets, the total number of these in M101 must be huge.

This colour image is the result of 3h of RGB and 7h of Ha data capture from Horsham, over 4 consecutive evenings in March 2022. A ZWO ASI2600MM Pro monochrome camera was used, through an 8-inch Teleskop-Service Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain reflector.

Date: 22/03/2022

Location: Horsham, West Sussex

Photographer: Graham Wilcock

Messier 101 in Ursa Major

This spiral galaxy is around 21 million lightyears distant, and with a diameter of around 170,000 lightyears, considerably larger than our own galaxy. It is estimated to contain a trillion stars, and as it seems increasingly likely that most stars have planets, the total number of these in M101 must be huge.

This colour image is the result of 3h of RGB and 7h of Ha data capture from Horsham, over 4 consecutive evenings in March 2022. A ZWO ASI2600MM Pro monochrome camera was used, through an 8-inch Teleskop-Service Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain reflector.

Date: 22/03/2022

Location: Horsham, West Sussex

Photographer: Graham Wilcock