At last, a clear night in the Finger Lakes of New York - the first since November 20th last year that hasn't been killing cold.

This is Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, one of the last entries in Messier's catalogue. It rotates counter clockwise.

This galaxy is huge. It is 21 million light years away and 3 times the diameter of our Milky way. The tidal forces generated by its 6 companion galaxies have caused huge throws of the spiral arms and have generated vast star forming areas in this galaxy. I have picked out two of the companion galaxies from the main image frame. One companion galaxy, NGC 5474, has been distorted into a very lopsided shape by tidal forces from M101, and more distant galaxies can be seen through it. M101 anchors its own group of possibly 9 galaxies.

M101 is a long way off the disk of the Milky Way, as can be seen by the scarcity of stars in front of it. This means that whatever is in this direction of space can be seen much more clearly. There are 16 substantial catalogued objects labelled in the sky map, and many more can be seen by looking closely at the image frame; any 'star' that isn't round or is fuzzy, is a more distant galaxy