Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  IC 4263  ·  IC 4277  ·  IC 4278  ·  M 51  ·  NGC 5194  ·  NGC 5195  ·  Whirlpool Galaxy
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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy, mhtandy
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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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Description

After a long stretch of cloudy weather, we finally got a couple of decent nights here for imaging. I went after M51 since I could get more time on it than most other galaxies (due to the trees blocking the western sky in my back yard). I'm happy with the amount of detail I was able to capture with this scope.

M51 is located in the constellation Canes Venatici, 31 million light-years from Earth. It is interacting with the smaller galaxy NGC 5195, which (according to Hubble observations), is passing behind the Whirlpool. Gravitational interaction with NGC 5195 pulls on M51's spiral arms, causing new star formation in the process.

Reference: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-51/

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy, mhtandy