Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4277  ·  IC 4278  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  Whirlpool Galaxy
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy, Ed Albin
Powered byPixInsight

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy, Ed Albin
Powered byPixInsight

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Whirlpool Galaxy is one of the most iconic of spiral galaxies in the night sky.  Although this galaxy is found in the obscure constellation of Canes Venatici, it's best remembered for being just off the the nearby Big Dipper. Cataloged as M51 in Charles Messier's famous logbook of deep-sky objects, the galaxy is a remarkably perfect spiral of stars with a secondary smaller galaxy at the end of one of its arms. Star formation is actively happening in this star system more than 30 million light years from Earth.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy, Ed Albin

In these collections

Galaxies