Night Sky Atlas Deep-sky photography

An independent open image archive Creative Commons licensed

Back to archive

Galaxy

Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 2026-01-22

Astrophotograph of M51: Whirlpool Galaxy
Whirlpool GalaxyM51

Taken from backyard obsey

01 / Capture

Object
M51
Object type
Galaxy
Captured
2026-01-22
Exposure
600x400s

02 / Imaging train

Equipment
Celestron 11 Edge HD + Fast Star · Skywatcher EQ6-R-Pro · ZWO 1600MM · ZWO EFW · RGB
Telescope
Celestron 11 Edge HD + Fast Star
Mount
Skywatcher EQ6-R-Pro
Camera
ZWO 1600MM
Filter wheel
ZWO EFW
Filter set
RGB

03 / Processing

Workflow
PixInsight

Image license: This gallery image is published under a Creative Commons license.

Object notes / Wikipedia

Wikipedia thumbnail for Whirlpool Galaxy

Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is 31 million light-years away and 23.58 kiloparsecs (76,900 ly) in diameter.

  • Constellation: Canes Venatici
  • Distance: 7.22 ± 2.13 megaparsecs (23.5 ± 6.95 million light-years)
  • Apparent magnitude (V): 8.4
  • Type: SA(s)bc pec
  • Size: 23.58 kpc (76,900 ly)(diameter; 25.0 mag/arcsec B-band isophote)
  • Apparent size (V): 11.2′ × 6.9′

Read more on Wikipedia

Text and media excerpted from Wikipedia/Wikimedia under their applicable licenses; see the linked article for full attribution history and license details.