M51 Whirlpool Galaxy (Jeff Weiss)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: IC 4277 · IC 4278 · M 51 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · Whirlpool Galaxy

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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, is 23 MLY from Earth and has an estimated diameter of 76,000 light-years which makes it about 43% the size of the Milky Way. Its mass is estimated to be 160 billion solar masses or around 10.3% of the mass of Milky Way Galaxy. A black hole occluded by dust exists at the heart of the spiral. The pronounced spiral structure of the Whirlpool Galaxy is believed to be the result of the close interaction between it and its companion galaxy NGC 5195, which may have passed through the main disk of M51 about 500 to 600 million years ago and is now behind it. Recent studies of the ripples in the spiral structure are thought to give clues about the dark matter halo around M51 (S. Chakrabarti). The Whirlpool Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the M51 Group, a small group of galaxies that also includes M63 (the Sunflower Galaxy), NGC 5023, and NGC 5229. [mostly excerpted from Wikipedia].

This 17.5h HaLRGB image uses DeepSkyWest data collected in New Mexico between March and April, 2020, with the data processed in February 2021. North is up.

11/25/22 Added 11.1 hrs of HaLRGB data from 2012 taken mostly at D.A.R.C. Obs., Mercey Hot Springs, CA. for 28.6 hrs total exposure.
Equipment:: APM LZOS 130/780 f/6 LW CNC II (W.O. 110/132 FLT FF), Takahashi EM-200 Temma2, SBIG ST-2000XM, Astrodon Gen 2 LRGB, Orion UWB Ha

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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	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6649330
PixInsight job	ZZS034OCUSZDY9KTAW57X4ICJ97UJ2S8
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h29m51s.837
RA (top/left)	13h30m41s.590
RA (top/right)	13h29m01s.549
RA (bottom/right)	13h29m02s.452
RA (bottom/left)	13h30m41s.928

Dec (center)	+47°12′41″.66
Dec (top/left)	+47°22′38″.94
Dec (top/right)	+47°22′33″.66
Dec (bottom/right)	+47°02′42″.38
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°02′47″.59

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M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

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