Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4263  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  Whirlpool Galaxy
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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, David Wills (PixelSkiesAstro)
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy
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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, David Wills (PixelSkiesAstro)
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy
Powered byPixInsight

M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

This was a pleasure to image and to process another one of my favorites. Definitely, need to spend some more time on collecting more RGB data apart from that I'm pretty pleased with it.

M51 was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is estimated to be 23 million light-years away from Earth and stretches a radius of 30,000 light-years. The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195, are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may be seen with binoculars. The Whirlpool Galaxy has been extensively observed by professional astronomers, who study it to understand galaxy structure (particularly structure associated with the spiral arms) and galaxy interactions.

Captured by David Wills at PixelSkies, Spain www.pixelskiesastro.com

Lum 44x900Secs

Red 29x300Secs

Green 18x300Secs

Blue 17x300Secs

Ha 10x1200Secs

22 hours 40 mins in total.

Equipment used:

Telescope: Tec 140 F7

Camera: Xpress Trius SX-694 Mono Cooled to -10C

Image Scale: 0.95

Guiding: OAG

Filters: Astronomik LRGB Ha

Mount: iOptron CEM60 "Standard" GOTO Centre Balanced Equatorial Mount

Image Acquisition: Voyager

Observatory control: Lunatico Dragonfly

Stacking and Calibrating: Pixinsight

Processing: Pixinsight 1.8

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  • M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, David Wills (PixelSkiesAstro)
    Original
  • Final
    M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, David Wills (PixelSkiesAstro)
    B

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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, David Wills (PixelSkiesAstro)