M 101

Although extended 22 arc minutes on photos and quite bright, only the central region of this galaxy is visible in smaller telescopes, best at low powers. Suggestions of the spiral arms can be glimpsed in telescopes starting from 4 inch as nebulous patches.

The distance of M101 has been determined by the measurement of Cepheid variables with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994/95 to be about 24 million light years.

More images of M101.

According to one of two common views, M102 was an erroneous re-observation of M101, which one may doubt though.

Right ascension	14 : 1.4 (hours : minutes)
Declination	+54 : 35 (degrees : minutes)
Distance	15000.0 (light-years*10^3)
Visual magnitude	9.6