M101, aka the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a face-on spiral galaxy some 21 million light-years away from Earth near the end of the Big Dipper handle. Discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, Charles Messier verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalog as one of its final entries. The catalog was meant to be list of objects in the night sky that resemble comets - but are, in fact, comets. Charles inadvertently created a list of spectacular celestial objects popular with amateur astronomers worldwide. M101 is located near the end of the handle of the big dipper, opposite M51. Like M51, it is not usually visible to the naked eye and appears to observers at a faint white splotch when viewed through a telescope. The color and details here were achieved by taking many long exposures through a telescope equipped with a tracking mount to keep it locked onto the target as the earth rotates.