M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy (jstrickland)

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

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

Celestron C8 XLT w/ JMI EV-1 focuser

Celestron f/6.3 Focal Reducer/Corrector

Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro (EQMOD)

SBIG ST-8XME w/ CFW-9 colour wheel (Orion LRGB filters) cooled to -20C

2" Orion Skyglow Imaging Filter

1.25" Orion LRGB Imaging Filters

Autoguided SSAG

Sequence Generator Pro

PixInsight

Processed on May 18, 2014 using PixInsight.

Luminance - 5 x 300 seconds

Red - 5 x 300 seconds

Green- 5 x 300 seconds

Blue - 5 x 300 seconds

Taken from my backyard on May 17, 2014.

First night out with the ST-8XME. Also my first night imaging with the C8. Using the long focal length of the SCT (1260mm) was bit of a challenge. I had issues with getting critical focus which may have been caused by the order of the accessories in my image train. I neglected to take flats and bias shots and the darks I used are from a different setpoint temperature.

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. Recently it was estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy, but different methods yield distances between 15 and 35 million ly. 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.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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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.

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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.
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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	282206
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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