M33 - Triangulum Galaxy

Full size image can be seen here : M33 with Canon 400D

M33 in Triangulum
3 x 15 minute exposures (45 minutes)
Skywatcher 200P Newt / Canon 400D
Salisbury (Dark sky site)

M33, also known as the Triangulum galaxy, has a diameter of about 50,000 light years. It is the third largest galaxy in the Local Group, a group of galaxies that also contains the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy, and it may be a gravitationally bound companion of the Andromeda Galaxy.

M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy

Full size image can be seen here : M101 with Canon 400D

M101 in Ursa Major
7 x 10 minute exposures (70 minutes)
Skywatcher 8" Newt / Canon 400D
Romney Marsh (Dark sky site)

M101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is about 27 million light years away. With a diameter of 170,000 light years it is nearly twice the size of the Milky Way. It is thought that M101 underwent a near collision with another galaxy, and the associated gravitational tidal forces caused the asymmetry.

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

Full size image can be seen here : M51 with Canon 400D

M51 in Canes Venatici
7 x 10 minute exposures (70 minutes)
Skywatcher 8" Newt Canon 400D
Kielder (Dark sky site)

M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is in fact two galaxies interacting with each other after a collision in the past. They are almost 25 million light years away from us.

M81 and M82 Galaxies

Full size image can be seen here : M81 and M82 with Canon 400D

M81 and M82 in Ursa Major
80 x 10 minute exposures (13 hours 20 minutes)
Skywatcher 8" Newt / Canon 400D
Chatham (Light polluted site)
Published in Sky at Night Magazine, July 2009

M81 (on the right) is a spiral galaxy that forms a pair with the irregular galaxy M82. The distance between the two galaxies is some 150,000 light years. M81 is the largest galaxy within in a group of 34, and is located 12 million light years away from planet Earth. This makes it one of the closet groups to the Local Group, which contains the Milky Way.