Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 51  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  Whirlpool galaxy
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M51, Whirlpool Galaxy, Paul Krizak
M51, Whirlpool Galaxy
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M51, Whirlpool Galaxy

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Description

My first galaxy photo that actually turned out pretty good. I still have some tracking error that I need to deal with (I don't have an autoguider, so I'm depending exclusively on a precise polar alignment and the built-in PEC of the mount). The tracking error is what leads to the bloated, somewhat smeared stars. This also smeared the image of the galaxy a bit, so it looks out of focus. Focus *might* have been just slightly off, but I doubt it; I think the large stars and generally fuzzy result are simply due to the extreme focal length (2500mm) combined with the effects of seeing and a generally oversampled image.

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M51, Whirlpool Galaxy, Paul Krizak