Location / Date

Zellerndorf, March/April 2014

Telescope / Mount / Guiding

ASA 10" Astrograph, ASA 2" Barlow Corrector 1.8x (focal length: 1620mm, f6.8)
ASA DDM60, no Guiding

Camera / Exposure

Luminance: Canon EOS 500D Mono, 54 x 15min ISO 800
Color: Canon EOS 500Da, 23 x 15min ISO 800
Hα: Canon EOS 500D Mono, 12 x 15min ISO 1600

total 22h 15min

Processing

Theli, Fitswork, PixInsight, Photoshop

Notes

Messier 51 is a large galaxy with a well defined spiral structure in the constellation Canes Venatici. This is why it is also called Whirlpool Galaxy. Recently it was estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy. It is also cataloged as NGC 5194.

Messier 51 is gravitationally interacting with a smaller dwarf galaxy, NGC 5195. Its spiral arms and dust lanes sweeps in front of its smaller companion galaxy.

Published in the ASA Calendar 2016