Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4263  ·  IC 4277  ·  IC 4278  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5169  ·  NGC 5173  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  NGC 5198  ·  Whirlpool Galaxy
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M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy, MountainAir
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M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy, MountainAir
Powered byPixInsight

M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy

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Description

One day, my 13-year-old came with me to help paint the observatory.  That night, I asked him to pick a target or two and let him "drive" the RedCat 51.  He's not really interested in astrophotography, but it was really fun to show him how it all works and to actually get him involved in target selection and monitoring.

We only had a single short summer night, but we captured both targets (the other being M8 and Trifid).  When I stacked them, I was surprised how well such a short integration turned out.  I'm pretty excited, so I'm going to metal-print both of these so he can have something to remember the trip by.  

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M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy, MountainAir