A small spiral galaxy in the middle of a dark star field, portrait view.
Pinwheel Galaxy (M 101), portrait · © Martin Hudec

Galaxies

Pinwheel Galaxy (M 101), portrait

The Pinwheel in the wide field of a short refractor.

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About the object

The Pinwheel (M101) in Ursa Major lies about 21 million light years away and is around 170,000 light years across – almost twice the size of the Milky Way. The pink knots in its arms are regions where stars are forming right now.

How the image was made

Captured
19 June 2025
Focal length
449 mm
Calibration & stacking
Siril 1.4.0-beta2
Processing
Adobe Lightroom 8.3.1 (Windows)

Data from the original file’s metadata or from the author.