M51, Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51 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 32 million light-years away and 109,000 ly (33,280 pc) in diameter. (wiki) The smaller bulbous tail is actually another galaxy interacting with the larger one to eventuality form a whole.
This is about 3 hours of exposure on a 24 inch planewave telescope with a FLI-PL09000 CCD camera. The skies where far from dark as this was during the full moon cycle - so I battled with a lot of noise. Considering, I'm relatively pleased.
Taken from California, USA.
M51, Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51 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 32 million light-years away and 109,000 ly (33,280 pc) in diameter. (wiki) The smaller bulbous tail is actually another galaxy interacting with the larger one to eventuality form a whole.
This is about 3 hours of exposure on a 24 inch planewave telescope with a FLI-PL09000 CCD camera. The skies where far from dark as this was during the full moon cycle - so I battled with a lot of noise. Considering, I'm relatively pleased.
Taken from California, USA.