Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4277  ·  IC 4278  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  Whirlpool Galaxy
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy in RGB (OSC), Eshan Toorabally
Powered byPixInsight

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy in RGB (OSC)

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy in RGB (OSC), Eshan Toorabally
Powered byPixInsight

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy in RGB (OSC)

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

M51, also known as the Wihrlpool Galaxy, is a classic spiral galaxy located 31 million light years away from Earth, located within the Canes Venatici constellation. It is interacting with its companion galaxy, NGC5195, which is passing behind M51 from our perspective. It is the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy and is thought to contain 160 billion stars.

This image is one of number of successes using my Edge HD OTA in the last month. I initially got stuck trying to image with the scope back in 2020 and gave up, running back to my small refractor! I decided to give it another go this year and had better luck. My mount (and guidescope!) is not quite good enough to guide the Edge at F/10 and, along with iffy collimation, explains the star shapes, but I am happy to get something half decent!

Thanks for looking!

Comments