M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy) is a huge spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major.  It stretches 170,000 LY in diameter, making
it twice the size of our Milky Way Galaxy.  From our vantage point, it is viewed face on and reveals a fascinating amount of
detail in its spiral arm structure.  M101 contains about 33 billion suns and lies at a distance of 25 Million LY from Earth.



May, 2009
WO ZS 105mm f/7 Apo Refractor
Canon Digital Rebel 400D / Modified (Hap Griffin)
140 Minutes / 28x300s @ 1600ASA
Manually guided on a 14" Meade LX200
Skyhawk Observatory, West Bend, WI
Rick Kazmierski