Messier 51
by Vern on Apr.04, 2006, under Arp Galaxy, Astronomy, Deep sky, Galaxy
I decided to try taking some images of Messier 51 with the Canon 300D last evening despite partly cloudy skies and a crescent moon. Transparency was generally good though there were occasional thin clouds, temperature 45°F, turbulence 6/10. Equipment used as Celestron Nexstar11, Celestron F6.2 focal reducer, and Canon 300D. I handguided for around 40 minutes to obtain 16, 2 minute exposurers at ASA 400. ImagePlus software was used to dark subtract, flat field correct, stack, and align the best 8 of 16 images.
Wider field versions are available 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1024×768, and 800×600.
Messier 51 (NGC 5194), the whirlpool galaxy in Canes Venatici is thought to be quite similar to our own Milky Way galaxy in mass, size, and luminosity. M51 is an excellent example of a face-on spiral that can be seen in a small telescope (8″) under a dark sky. It is believed to be interacting gravitationally with is neighbor to the north, NGC 5195.
April 5th, 2006 on 6:28 pm
Hi Vern,
Just put new desktop, 1024 x 768, on my new laptop. :^D
In your neck of the woods, can you see the bridge between the 2 cores? It looks pretty dim between them.
Thanks, peter
April 5th, 2006 on 10:17 pm
From here under the light polluted haze from nearby metro Denver, all I can see are a couple faint blobs.
At a dark sky sight with my Nexstar11, I can see parts of the bridge with averted vision — not all of it, there still a fair gap between. The two spirals are quite apparent and its quite great fun to trace them.