M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy (2020)

I am a little late to the Whirlpool party due my poor field of view to the East, but better late than never.  This is the Whirlpool Galaxy or M51 (a.k.a. NGC 5194) located some 30 million light-years from us in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It a gorgeous classic spiral galaxy with well developed arms and probably the most striking thing about this galaxy is the yellow companion galaxy, NGC 5195, which seems to be attached to the lower end of the spiral arm on my image.  The interaction between these galaxies is thought to have started 500 million years ago when NGC 5195 passed through the main disk but then made another pass between 50 and 100 million years ago.  The diameter ranges from 60,000 to 76,000 ly and the solar mass is roughly 10.3 % of the Milky Way.

Once again I cropped this quite a bit, I did not want to go further although many do but they have much larger scopes than the AT115 refractor.  A small galaxy, IC 4263, approximately 129 million ly away is visible on the upper right side of the image.  Also if you look closely, two other very small galaxies are visible below the M51.  IC 4277 resembles a tiny sliver just below NGC 5195 while IC 4278 looks like a small cotton ball.  

This is only the second time I have imaged M51, the fist time was from three years ago (link), fortunately I like this one better.  Processing was straight forward although I did a 30 % Ha combination in the red channel and a 50 % combination in the HaRGB making it a LHaRGB image.  I was not really planning on collecting Ha, it was clear when the full moon was out so I did not want to waste a cloudless night.  I ended up tossing approximately 2.5 hrs of slightly out of focus images so I have been focusing on focus lately.  My solution was to use NINA for focusing purposes as well as monitoring the field during an imaging session while continuing to use APT for running the mount and capturing the images.  Sounds crazy but I really like the way APT does things. 

Also, I used MLT in PI for noise reduction and made a video (Link). It very powerful and simple to use.  

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy (2020)
Home Monroe, CT
Date: 4-8-20, 4-9-20, 4-11-20, 4-13-20, 4-15-20, 4-16-20, 4-18-20, 4-20-20, 4-21-20
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805
f/7
Focal Reducer: HoTech Self-Guiding Field Flattener for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: Ha 46 x 180, L 267 x 60s, R 54 x 90s, G 56 x 90s, B 59 x 90s

Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: 4 C
Processing: APT, NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Lightroom.
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