Messier 51 The Whirlpool Galaxy (Barry Wilson)

Messier 51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

The magnificent Messier 51 as described by NASA's pages: "The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust. Such striking arms are a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. In M51, also known as the Whirlpool galaxy, these arms serve an important purpose: they are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars.Some astronomers think that the Whirlpool’s arms are particularly prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the arms. The compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm, the tidal forces from which trigger new star formation. Hubble’s clear view shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind M51. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.In Hubble’s captivating image of M51, the red represents infrared light as well as hydrogen within giant star-forming regions. The blue color can be attributed to hot, young stars while the yellow color is from older stars.Discovered by Charles Messier in 1773, M51 is located 31 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.4 and can be spotted with a small telescope most easily during May. The Whirlpool galaxy’s beautiful face-on view and closeness to Earth allow astronomers to study a classic spiral galaxy’s structure and star-forming processes."

I have pasted the complete FOV to show the galaxy in context however the crop best shows the detail of the whirlpool spiral arms.

Data acquisition: Barry Wilson & Steve Milne
Processing: Barry Wilson

Final
Original
B

B

Description: Full FOV

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7727742
PixInsight job	RGUBCW299KRGEDKF5TSSB4OU3LXPICWV
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h29m51s.258
RA (top/left)	13h28m08s.904
RA (top/right)	13h28m16s.550
RA (bottom/right)	13h31m32s.324
RA (bottom/left)	13h31m27s.241

Dec (center)	+47°12′03″.11
Dec (top/left)	+47°32′06″.86
Dec (top/right)	+46°50′59″.99
Dec (bottom/right)	+46°51′52″.30
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°33′00″.50

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