M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy (Paul Ricker)

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, a Seyfert 2 AGN in Canes Venatici. After M31 and M33 seems to be the most photographed nearby galaxy -- its ongoing interaction with NGC 5195 has produced a dramatic spray of stars and likely has helped to trigger a burst of star formation and the nuclear activity. The prominent dust lanes, with HII regions strung out like embedded rubies, lend much of this galaxy's visual appeal. Long exposure also reveals many background galaxies.

I've been hoping to capture more of the tidal "loop" of stars on the right of this image, but although I can see most of it in the original stacked luminance, I haven't managed to preserve it through processing. I'm guessing one needs a darker site than the Bortle ~4-5 location available SW of Champaign, or else a lot more integration. A target for that trip to Death Valley I always hope to make some day...

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

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
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

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
Own remote observatory
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	4377102
PixInsight job	AAMO3W4P1M9HXFJ042X8Q7U5IORKHX75
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h29m56s.704
RA (top/left)	13h29m19s.450
RA (top/right)	13h30m40s.760
RA (bottom/right)	13h30m34s.144
RA (bottom/left)	13h29m12s.917

Dec (center)	+47°12′16″.99
Dec (top/left)	+47°02′05″.21
Dec (top/right)	+47°02′49″.99
Dec (bottom/right)	+47°22′30″.81
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°21′44″.50

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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