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.