M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy (Drew Evans)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: HD117815 · 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

Link: http://drewjevans.com/astronomy

Powered byPixInsight

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

Link: http://drewjevans.com/astronomy

M51 - THE WHIRLPOOL GALAXY

Copyright: Drew Evans

Note: full resolution versions here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fupdexrvt3cidxb/AAD6z2XS3zdAHB6L4d0Oebjta?dl=0

The Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy.

It's companion galaxy, NGC 5195, (seen to the left) is being ripped apart by the huge gravitational disturbance of M51.

The distance of M51 is estimated to be about 37 million light years. The diameter is approximately 100,000 light years and the total mass is estimated to be the equivalent of 160 billion suns.

M51 can easily observed with binoculars in darker skies.

OTA: Explore Scientific ED152 Air-Spaced Triplet with 3" Field Flattener .7x Focal Reducer, 851mm focal length⁣ f/5.6

Mount: Celestron CGX-L

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro

Gain: 100

Cooling Temperature: -10 Celsius

Auto-guiding: ZWO ASI174MM Mini and ZWO M68 OAG

Control: ZWO ASIAIR Pro

Filters: 2" Astronomik L3, RGB (CCD), Ha (12nm)

Acquisition:

L 51 x 180s = 2.55 hours

R 31 x 300s = 2.58 hours

G 30 x 300s = 2.5 hours

B 30 x 300s = 2.5 hours

Ha 37 x 600s = 6.2 hours

16.33 hours total over 3 evenings in April 2021

Flagstaff, AZ - Bortle 4 skies

Calibrated in Astro Pixel Processor⁣ with darks and flats

Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

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

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
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Top picks
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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
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Star trails
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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
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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	4440128
PixInsight job	YWQEZ4FRMJTRM8CFO4JS0VXV3EGLVYV1
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h30m01s.154
RA (top/left)	13h26m57s.652
RA (top/right)	13h27m16s.353
RA (bottom/right)	13h32m59s.999
RA (bottom/left)	13h32m51s.760

Dec (center)	+47°14′03″.28
Dec (top/left)	+47°59′36″.41
Dec (top/right)	+46°26′49″.29
Dec (bottom/right)	+46°28′13″.86
Dec (bottom/left)	+48°01′08″.20

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M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

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M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

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