Canon 30D Unmodified
36x180sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
Celestron 8 at 1260mm

M51 the "Whirlpool Galaxy" and it's companion NGC5195 which is responsible for M51's pronounced spiral - the result of intense gravitational interactions between the two.

M51 was one of Charles Messier's original discoveries and is the dominating member of a group of galaxies which also contains M63. Distance from earth is 37 million light years.

Another neighbor IC 4263 at magnitude 15 can be seen in the lower left corner.

May 18, 2007