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Astrophotography by Eddie Guscott

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

This face on spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici is actually two galaxies (NGC5194 [M51] and NGC5195)interacting with each other, and connected by a "bridge" of gas, dust and stars where the two galaxies are gravitationally bound. Lying at a distance of about 37 million light years, This was the first galaxy observed to have a spiral structure by Lord Rosse in 1845
 

See also my NGC5194 page for a Hi Res Image

 

Click here or on picture for a larger (400Kb) view

 

Date/Location: May/June, 2005  Corringham, Essex  
Equipment: 5" f6 TMB refractor on AP900 mount  
Camera/Exposure: ST2000XM ccd camera + Astrodon filters.  LRGB: 370/60/60/60 minutes  
Notes Imaged over 2 nights. 1st night was for Luminance, very transparent although seeing was a little "soft". 2nd night, the colour data was acquired, with a little high cloud and some mist rolling in resulting in the muted colours.  
  Added more data on June 9th. Total exposure now around 9 hours and the outer shell/halo is only just visible above the background noise. Still, the image seems a lot smoother, and I have shown the full field of view, rather than the cropped version below.  

 

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                                                                                     Click here or on picture for a larger (250Kb) view

Date/Location: May, 2005  Corringham, Essex  
Equipment: 5" f6 TMB refractor on AP900 mount  
Camera/Exposure: ST2000XM ccd camera + Astrodon filters.  LRGB: 210/50/50/50 minutes  
Notes Imaged over 2 nights. 1st night was for Luminance, very transparent although seeing was a little "soft". 2nd night, the colour data was acquired, with a little high cloud and some mist rolling in resulting in the muted colours.  
     

                                                                                                                               

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Date/Location: May, 2003  Corringham, Essex  
Equipment: AP 6" F9 refractor on AP900 GTO mount / TTL Filter Wheel  
Camera/Exposure: HX916 ccd camera : L= 22mins (2x2), R= 11mins (2x2), G= 12mins (2x2), B= 14mins (2x2)  
Processing: Calibration & Alignment with AIP4WIN, Combined with SIGMA, colour combined & post processed (levels & curves ) in Photoshop 7  
Notes: Like so many of my pictures, the individual exposures had to be curtailed due to clouds.  

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