M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major (RonAdams)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: IC 4263 · M 51 · NGC 5169 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · NGC 5198 · Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major

I didn't intend on imaging this object tonight. I wanted to image the Hickson 44 Group of

galaxies in Leo. However I took a test image and I could tell that I wasn't going to be pleased with the image. My ED80 was not enough aperture to do this group of galaxies justice. I could get

an image of all the galaxies but they were so small that very little detail in the galaxies could be

seen. Then clouds moved in and I fought with clouds for over an hour. The clouds limited

where I could image. I chose to try and image M51 because there were no clouds in that

direction. After taking around 12 images the Moon rose and each image after that became

more and more washed out. Whenever I have to contend with heavy Moon light I have trouble

bringing out color in the object and star field. I did not take as many light frames as I wanted

because it got to where I could not see anything in the image because of the Moon light.

Enough complaining. We all have to deal with this. So with all of that said please enjoy

my most recent image of M51. I complain a lot but I really do love being outside at

night with my scope and my camera chasing Deep Sky objects.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3688756
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major

M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major

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M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major

M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major

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