Camera: Finger Lakes Instrumentation MicroLine ML8300 with FLI CFW-2-7 Filter Wheel

Mount: Losmandy G-11/Gemini

Scope: Astro-Physics Starfire AP130 EDF

Colors: Luminance

Exposure Time: 240 minutes

Post-Production: MaxIm DL, CCDStack, PixInsight, and Photoshop CS3

Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier\\'s famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. M101 was also one of the original spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse\\'s large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. The sharp image shows stunning features along the galaxy\\'s face-on disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major, about 25 million light-years away. This image is is a luminance-only version of this classic object.