The Great Cosmic Snail (The Whirlpool Galaxy M51) (Will Czaja)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: IC 4263 · IC 4278 · M 51 · NGC 5195 · Whirlpool galaxy

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The Great Cosmic Snail (The Whirlpool Galaxy M51)

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The Great Cosmic Snail (The Whirlpool Galaxy M51)

This beautifully intricate "grand-design" spiral galaxy lies 23 million light years from Earth and is about 75% the size of our Milky Way Galaxy.

The Whirlpool Galaxy is gravitationally interacting with a neighbor galaxy NGC 5195. Astronomers think that NGC 5195 has been periodically colliding through the Whirlpool Galaxy every few hundred million years. The two galaxies are now connected by a dusty tidal bridge which you can see in this image.

Not a typical target for a scope my size, but I think I was able to get adequate resolution on it thanks to my camera's small pixels and a whole ton of data. My usual stretching technique (peak at one third histogram, with mild clipping of the left side) yeilded awful colors and background. Special thanks to Dhaval Brahmbhatt for suggesting to use the ArcsinhStretch process in PixInsight which worked like magic. It worked so well I want to go back and try it on some of my past images. Anyone else have good experiences using ArcsinhStretch? I really like how it handles colors.

Critiques greatly appreciated as always. Thanks!

ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M
Narrowband imaging
Takahashi Refractors
The refractors!
Cloudy Nights
QHY Users Group

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3236201
PixInsight job	R67NLP89CLZ4CBS1SHRSFIYFBTZM8XKY
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	13h29m48s.23
RA (top/left)	13h27m28s.46
RA (top/right)	13h28m36s.90
RA (bottom/right)	13h32m06s.31
RA (bottom/left)	13h31m00s.86

Dec (center)	+47°13′17″.1
Dec (top/left)	+47°32′33″.6
Dec (top/right)	+46°45′18″.6
Dec (bottom/right)	+46°53′50″.2
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°41′12″.5

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The Great Cosmic Snail (The Whirlpool Galaxy M51)

The Great Cosmic Snail (The Whirlpool Galaxy M51)

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Image Index:

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The Great Cosmic Snail (The Whirlpool Galaxy M51)

The Great Cosmic Snail (The Whirlpool Galaxy M51)

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