Wallpaper author:
Andrew Macica
09 Feb 2026
Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51 or NGC 5194. M51 is a spiral galaxy with an interacting companion galaxy, NGC 5195. It is 31 MLY distant. (NASA Science)
Image processed by Andrew F. Macica, original data from Telescope Live.
Imaging Details:
Observatory: Oria, Spain
Telescope: Officina Stellare 700 RC
Aperture: 700 mm (27.5 inches), f/8
Focal Length: 5600 mm
Camera: QHY 600M Pro CMOS
Filters: LRGB
Total Exposure: 10 hours 10 min.
Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);
BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator (RC Astro);
Adobe Photoshop 12.5.1;
Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.1.1
Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.
Dataset from which the image was processed
M51
9 credit
- Type of target............................................................................................................................Galaxy
- Camera............................................................................................................................QHY 600M
- Target coordinates............................................................................................................................RA 202.4696 Dec 47.1953
- Hemisphere............................................................................................................................Northern
- Telescope location............................................................................................................................Spain
- Transient event............................................................................................................................No
- Observed on............................................................................................................................26 Mar 2023 - 17 Jul 2023
Filter | Avg Exp (s) | Total Exposure | Subframes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luminance | 88 | 1h56m | 79 |
| Red | 158 | 3h28m | 79 |
| Green | 150 | 3h18m | 79 |
| Blue | 122 | 2h40m | 79 |
| Halpha | 82 | 1h46m | 78 |