The splendid spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier’s famous catalogue. It is about 170,000 light-years in diameter. This galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It was also one of the first spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse’s large telescope in the 19th century, the Parsonstown Leviathan. M 101 shares this telescopic field of view with distant galaxies in the background, stars in the heart of the Milky Way in the foreground, and a dwarf galaxy called NGC 5474 in the lower right. The colours of the Milky Way stars are also found in the starlight of the vast island universe. Its core is dominated by the yellow light of cold stars. Along its spiral arms are young hot blue stars mixed with dark dust trails and pinkish star-forming regions. Also known as the Reel Galaxy M 101 is located within the northern constellation of the Big Dipper, about 23 million light years away. Its companion NGC 5474 was probably distorted by their gravitational interactions.