M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

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 in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Recently it was estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way, but different methods yield distances between 15 and 35 million light-years. Messier 51 is one of the best known galaxies in the sky. (Wikipedia).

 

First attempt at capture (RGB) from light polluted west London.

 

LHaRGB image: 8/3/16 & 9/4/16

Oxfordshire (Lum) and London (colour), UK

5 Hours Total Combined Exposure

Bin1x1 16x600s L, 4x600s R, 4x600s G, 4x600s B, 1x1200s Ha

Heavily cropped.

 

Equipment:

T: Takahashi FSQ106ED @ f/5, extender-q 1.6x (f/5->f/8)

C: QSI683ws Mono CCD, Astronomik Filters (6nm Ha)

M: Celestron Advanced Vx

G: QHY5-II

 

Acquisition and Processing:

PHD2, Sequence Generator Pro, CCDStack, Photoshop CS6

Done