M 51
The Whirlpool Galaxy
Captured: Apr 22, 2026
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M 51 (Captured 4/22/26)
M 51 (aka the Whirlpool Galaxy) is an interacting grand spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canis Venatici. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1773. It is about 30 million light-years from Earth.
The annotated image to the left shows other items of interest in the capture.
The image consists of 203 Luminance one minute exposures, 102 Red, 93 Green and 96 Blue two minute exposures and 33 five minute Ha exposures for a total integration of 15 hours and 50 minutes. I processed the images using PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop software. I used my Orion 8 inch Newtonian telescope, with a focal length of 800mm, a ZWO 294MM astronomy camera, Antlia LRGB and 3nm Ha filters . I used the Williams-Optics 50mm guide scope and ZWO 290MM Mini guide camera all atop the Skywatcher Wave 150i telescope mount.
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