Other Names: NGC 5194
Optics: Meade 10" ACF SCT at f/9.4
Mount: Paramount MX using
The SkyX Pro Camera: QSI 683WSG-8 Filters: Astrodon LRGB
Exposure: 1340 Mins or 22.33 hours, [665' Lum, 245' R, 175' G, 245' B ], 300s exposures, Binned 2x2
Accessories: Auto guided with Starlight Xpress
Adaptive Optics, Starlight Xpress
Lodestar &
PHD2. FLI
Atlas focuser using
FocusMax 4.1.0.72 Location: Burlington, ON, Canada Date: Taken over several nights from March 10th, 2018 to May 24th, 2018
Notes: Image acquisition with
TSX Pro using
MaxPilote automation software.
Processing: Image calibration, & align in Maxim DL Pro. Levels, curves, cosmetic adjustments and crop/resize in Photoshop. Color mapped to the LRGB palette in PS. Calibrated w/32 Darks, 100 Bias, 50 Flats of each filter using natural sky flats. CCD temperature was -25C. Image was taken from my backyard
Observatory.
Awarded SkyNews Photo of the week, Sept 14, 2018: https://astromarina.zenfolio.com/p498178330/hc623cb96#hc622fb0e The
Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as
Messier 51a,
M51a, and
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. Its distance is estimated to be between 15 and 35 million light-years.