Messier 51 - Whirlpool Galaxy (Rikesh Patel)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: IC 4263 · IC 4278 · M 51 · NGC 5169 · NGC 5173 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · NGC 5198 · Whirlpool Galaxy

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Messier 51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

Link to TIFF/FITS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/189414873@N06/51586598950/in/dateposted/

Powered byPixInsight

Messier 51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

Link to TIFF/FITS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/189414873@N06/51586598950/in/dateposted/

Data acquired April 2021, re-processed October 2021

M51a (Whirlpool Galaxy) interacting with its companion galaxy NGC5195 23 million light-years away. The star bridge/dust cloud connecting the galaxies are a result of the gravitational interaction which has estimated to have been ongoing for the last 500 million years. This interaction will eventually cause the two galaxies to merge.Equipment:

Skywatcher HEQ5-pro (Rowan Belt Mod)
ZWO ASI 294MC-pro
Explore Scientific ED APO 102mm F7 FCD-100 Triplet Carbon Fibre
Hotech SCA 1x field flattener
ZWO ASI-120MM-mini guide camera
Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guidescope
2 inch mounted Optolong L-Pro

Acquisition:

Sharpcap polar alignment, ASCOM guiding/dithering with PHD2
APT image acquisition
Lights – 100 x 180s at -15c, gain 125, offset 30 (total integration 5 hours)
Darks – 30
Flats – 30
Dark flats - 30

Procesing:

Images calibrated and stacked in APP
Light pollution removal and star colour calibration in APP
Autostretched image saved as 16 bit TIFF
PS – star saturation, masked stretch to reveal faint outer dust, high pass filter on galaxy (pixel size 5) with layer mask, further saturation enhancements, denoise of background, black point set to 25, starnet++ used to reduce star size/burden.
Minimal crop

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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Northern lights
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Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
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Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
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.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
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.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5101910
PixInsight job	1OM82JVATHEOOL728XG89OR4VPA56SIG
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h30m07s.87
RA (top/left)	13h29m00s.94
RA (top/right)	13h26m35s.15
RA (bottom/right)	13h31m12s.73
RA (bottom/left)	13h33m44s.98

Dec (center)	+47°11′48″.7
Dec (top/left)	+48°01′52″.3
Dec (top/right)	+46°35′38″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	+46°21′42″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°47′43″.4

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Messier 51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

Messier 51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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Messier 51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

Messier 51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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