M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

A perennial favourite.

 

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, is 31 million light years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. It has a beautiful face-on appearance, as seen from Earth, enabling observers to make out its distinct spiral structure and luminous galactic core.

 

The spiral arms are packed with stars, gas and dust and make for the perfect conditions for new stars to be born, as that gas and dust coalesces, compresses and collapses to ignite star-birth.

 

In images of the Whirlpool Galaxy, hot young stars can be seen glowing bright blue along the arms, while older, yellower stars are seen glowing closer to the centre.

 

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Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C

Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam

Guide via: ZWO OAG

 

Stacked from:

Lights33 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 30 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Flat 30 at 580 ms, gain 101, temp -10C

Dark Flat 30 at 580 ms, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.

Processed in PixInsight

Captions added in Photoshop CS4

 

Done