M 101 Pinwheel Galaxy

April 9, 2026

A little frosty this morning after the imaging session. I'm still using the same mismatched (sort of) setup, with the Carbonstar 150 (600mm fl) scope and the ZWO ASI715MC camera. I spent the entire night capturing 120-second subs of M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. 

Galaxy M 101 (NGC 5457), the "Pinwheel Galaxy" in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper) is over 21 million lightyears away from us. M101 is almost twice the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way, with over a trillion star systems. Imaging notes: This image is from the April 8, 2026 astro session in my backyard, Apertura CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 160 2-minute subs stacked in PixInsight, no calibration frames.