Pinwheel Galaxy
A large face-on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, faint to look at because its light is spread wide.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Kind of object
- Galaxy
- Distance
- 20.8 million light years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 7.9, a sight for binoculars
- Size in the sky
- About as wide as the full Moon
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Catalogue
- M 101, NGC 5457
Figures from OpenNGC, CC BY-SA 4.0; the SEDS Messier catalogue, via Wikipedia’s table of Messier objects, CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- AlkaidA blue-white main-sequence star in Ursa Major, about three fingers away.
- MizarA white main-sequence star in Ursa Major, about three fingers away.
- Whirlpool GalaxyA galaxy in Canes Venatici, about a fist away.
- AliothA white star in Ursa Major, about a fist away.
- DubheA bright star in Ursa Major, about a hand span away.