M 51 – The Whirlpool Galaxy
* Discovered by Charles Messier in 1773, is the first classified spiral galaxy by Lord Rosse (William Parsons) in 1845.
* M 51 is located between 21-31 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici.
* Overall the galaxy is about 88% the size of the Milky Way.
* It’s believed to be an estimated 400 million years old. -very young-.
* The Whirlpool Galaxy has two, very prominent spiral arms that wind clockwise. The pronounced spiral structure of the Whirlpool Galaxy is the result of the close interaction between it and its companion galaxy NGC 5195. The compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm, the tidal forces from which trigger new star formation.
* The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.
* The elongated ‘plumes’ in the bottom and side of M 51 is the result with the interaction with NGC 5195, are composed by stars, dust and interstellar molecular gas.
* In M 51 the striking arms are a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. These arms serve an important purpose: they are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars.
* Three supernovae have been observed in the Whirlpool Galaxy: January 1994, June 2005 and May 2011.
* When imaging with narroband filter, the redish color represent hydrogen within giant star-forming regions.
The blue color can be attributed to hot, young stars while the yellow color is from older stars.
* The Whirlpool’s skeletal dust structure, as seen in near-infrared light is dense. The narrow lanes of dust revealed by Hubble reflect the galaxy’s moniker, the Whirlpool Galaxy, as if they were swirling toward the galaxy’s core
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Maurizio’s imaging sessions were shot at mountain locations, Alpe Grande (CO) and Pizzanco (VCO), using the L-Pro filter with Bortle 3-4, while the only backyard session was done with the Triad Ultra filter.
The sessions stacked and post-processing were done in PI, and the resulting starless-galaxy files and star-base were combined in Photoshop, where several Camera Raw tools such as Clarity, Texture, Dehaze, and Denoise were also applied.
Nicla Camerin y Maurizio Camerin
Image full version https://www.astrobin.com/full/gza49l/B/
Annotate galaxies around https://www.astrobin.com/full/gza49l/C/
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Imaging Telescope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 200P ×
Imaging Camera: Canon EOS Ra
Mount: iOptron CEM70
Filters: Optolong L-Pro 2″ · Radian Triad Ultra 2″
Software: Adobe Photoshop · Distinct Solutions Ltd Astro Photography Tool (APT) · Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Russell Croman Astrophotography BlurXTerminator · Russell Croman Astrophotography NoiseXTerminator · Russell Croman Astrophotography StarXTerminator · SetiAstro Automatic DBE · SetiAstro Whats In My Image · Topaz Labs DeNoise AI
Dates: May 7 2021, June 10 2022 and March 18 – 19 2024
Integration: 5h 1′ 30″