M 101

Messier 101,The Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 or NGC 5457, is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years (6.4 megaparsecs) away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781[a] and was communicated that year to Charles Messier, who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries.

On February 28, 2006, NASA and the European Space Agency released a very detailed image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, which was the largest and most-detailed image of a galaxy by Hubble Space Telescope at the time.[10] The image was composed of 51 individual exposures, plus some extra ground-based photos.

This galaxy which is not in our Group but its in our Neighborhood (future list to share.) Can be located from the tip of the handle of the Big Dipper, I have looked at it quite often over the years.  It really needs a dark sky to really appreciate it, but it can be found with most telescopes.

Personal reflections

Another view from a little later Item 1180 from my Observing log.

I have visited and recorded this object 9 times in my log, Between 1991 and 2018

Keywords: M 101,Messier 101,NGC 5457. Ursa Major