M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy. The Little Blue Pearl with Distant Neighbors.
Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy ... the Little Blue Pearl with Distant Neighbors. Set against a coal black sky, this huge galaxy looks tiny in the vast expanse of the heavens. Two very distant and faint galaxies appear to the right of M51 on the way to the right margin of the photo along with another, brighter galaxy (NGC 5198) in the lower right of the photo. All together, there are at least 10 very distant and tiny appearing galaxies in this image that one could see by zooming in and patiently looking for elongated, little smudges.
This image, was taken from a Bortle 4 dark sky site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: Explore Scientific ED102 APO refractor FL 714mm and f7. Guiding was with an Orion 50mm Guide Scope of FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI290MC for the guide camera. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: Canon T7i DSLR at the prime focus of the telescope. Exposures: 98 x 45s with ISO 3200. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight. Slight crop. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.
M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy. The Little Blue Pearl with Distant Neighbors.
Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy ... the Little Blue Pearl with Distant Neighbors. Set against a coal black sky, this huge galaxy looks tiny in the vast expanse of the heavens. Two very distant and faint galaxies appear to the right of M51 on the way to the right margin of the photo along with another, brighter galaxy (NGC 5198) in the lower right of the photo. All together, there are at least 10 very distant and tiny appearing galaxies in this image that one could see by zooming in and patiently looking for elongated, little smudges.
This image, was taken from a Bortle 4 dark sky site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: Explore Scientific ED102 APO refractor FL 714mm and f7. Guiding was with an Orion 50mm Guide Scope of FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI290MC for the guide camera. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: Canon T7i DSLR at the prime focus of the telescope. Exposures: 98 x 45s with ISO 3200. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight. Slight crop. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.