M51 (Paddy Gilliland)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 51 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · Whirlpool galaxy

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M51

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M51

Here is my look at M51.

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus in the constellation Canes Venatici. In the Catalogue of Named Galaxies, it is called Typhon Canum Venaticorum, after the Greek god Typhon. It was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Recently it was estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way, but different methods yield distances between 15 and 35 million light-years. Messier 51 is one of the best-known galaxies in the sky. The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195, are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may even be seen with binoculars. The Whirlpool Galaxy is also a popular target for professional astronomers, who study it to further understand galaxy structure (particularly structure associated with the spiral arms) and galaxy interactions.

I was interested to see how much detail could be found in the data. [Wikipedia]

I recently saw an article on AFP-R to maximise detail, however, it is very similar to what I already do running small iterations of LHE at different settings in PI and stacked high pass layers selectively applied in PS. Great to see some new techniques worth a look if you have not seen. I will stick with my approach for now.

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	1651766
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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