M51 or NGC5194, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is a Type SA(s)bc interacting grand design unbarred spiral galaxy with a Seyfert active galactic nucleus.  It is 25 million light-years from earth in constellation Canes Venatici and its diameter is 76,900 light-years.  M51’s apparent magnitude is 8.4 and easily seen with a pair of binoculars and was discovered by Charles Messier in 1773. It is the brightest galaxy in the M51 Group, that includes its companion galaxy NGC5195 and the Sunflower Galaxy (M63).

M51 interacts with a dwarf galaxy designated as NGC5195.  The dwarf galaxy is highly distorted, sometimes identified as a lenticular galaxy.  The two galaxies are connected by a dust-rich tidal bridge.  The encounter has significantly enhanced the spiral structure of M51.

The list below exhibits the number of subframes used with the exposure time for each filter. All the subframes were calibrated with Flats, Darks and Biases by PixInsight. Afterwards the subframes were combined and processed to the final image.

^* 2×2 binned

Total time for collecting data for this image is 17.3 hours.