Imaged from Beckwith Township, Ontario

M101 is a face-on spiral galaxy like our Milky Way, but about 70 percent bigger. It is about 21 million light years from Earth; and is located in the constellation Ursa Major.

To the right of M101 is a small asymmetric spiral galaxy (NGC 5474) that appears to be "shying away from the larger galaxy".

26 x 105 second light subs; Nikon D7200; ISO1600; Nikkor 300mm f/4E PR lens; F/5.17 (aperture mask used); on a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer mini equatorial mount. Total integration is 46 minutes.

Shot in RAW; converted to TIFF files using ACR; Stacked in DSS; processed in CS6.