Galaxy M101 in Ursa Major

This is a face on Sc spiral galaxy. The central mass is small and star-like while the spiral arms are quite extended and contain many concentrations of nebulous matter. The distance is around 15 million light years away and the diameter is about 90,000 light years.

The nebulous concentrations in the arms of M101 have found their way into the NGC catalog as NGC5449, 5450, 5451, 5453, 5455, 5458, 5461, and 5462.

Images taken with TEC-140 Telescope mounted on Losmandy G11 mount. Camera used was a Canon EOS20D used at prime focus.

Twenty 3 minute exposures dark compensated, aligned and stacked, background removed and Digitaly Developed in ImagesPlus 2.75