The Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy

This is Messier 51, the so called Whirlpool Galaxy - an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active nucleas, located about 31 million light years from us in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Discovered in October 1773 by Charles Messier, M51 (and its partner NGC 5195) is one of the most-observed and studied interacting galaxies. With an apparent magnitude of 8.4mag it’s relatively bright and easily visible with also smaller amateur telescopes.

The image above is a crop of a wider view with some more galaxies in the background:

Widefield view of M51

Details

  • Scope: Askar 103APO
  • Lens: Askar 1.0x Flattener
  • Camera: Canon EOS 6Da
  • Filter: Svbony UV/IR-Cut
  • Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ5 GT
  • Guiding: Svbony SV165 Guide Scope with ZWO ASI 224MC
  • Controller: ZWO ASIAir Pro
  • Color Palette: RGB
  • Exposure Time: 5hrs 50min

Objects

  • IC 4257
  • IC 4263
  • IC 4277
  • IC 4278
  • IC 4282
  • IC 4284
  • IC 4285
  • IC 5169
  • IC 5173
  • Messier 51 / NGC 5194 (Whirlpool Galaxy)
  • NGC 5195
  • NGC 5198
  • NGC 5229

Interactions

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