09 Feb 2026
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.
M51
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