Galaxies
Messier 101 in Ursa Major in Hydrogen-alpha
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 monochrome image is the result of 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
