Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4263  ·  IC 4278  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5169  ·  NGC 5173  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  NGC 5198  ·  Whirlpool galaxy
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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy #9, Molly Wakeling
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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy #9

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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy #9, Molly Wakeling
Powered byPixInsight

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy #9

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I spent the last two nights at the National Youth Science Camp near Green Bank, West Virginia, teaching astrophotography to the top 100 science students from the US and several Central and South American countries. The skies were fantastically clear and dark both nights, and together with the students, I captured a great set of images on the Whirlpool Galaxy! You can also spot several of its distant galactic neighbors.

M51 is a grand design spiral galaxy, and its close companion NGC 5195 is interacting with it gravitationally, which is the source of the tidal trail coming off the pair. They lie about 23 million lightyears away in the constellation Canes Venatici (although it is very close to the star at the end of the Big Dipper, Alkaid).

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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy #9, Molly Wakeling