Whil­pool Galaxy (M51)

M51 Galaxy Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

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The Whirl­pool Galaxy, also known as Messi­er 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, 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 is 31 mil­lion light-years away and 76,900 ly in diameter.

This image is a clas­sic­al LRGB with Ha com­bined with R chan­nel. North is at 3 o’clock.

The same object was imaged with my short focal length setup. The image can be found here.

[descrip­tion from wikipedia]

Details

Tele­scope:
RCOS 14.5″ f/​8
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
Andor U16M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
L(HaR)GB 780:(920:280):260:220 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart Whil­pool Galaxy (M51)

M51 Galaxy Sky Chart Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Image cre­ated by Skychart

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About Me

Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. “Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”. Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.

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