Messier 51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy 2019 Version
Date: August 29, 2019
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0007
Messier 51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy as taken on August 29, 2019 (click to enlarge)
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About the Target
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy! The first spiral galaxy ever discovered. 23 MILLION Light Years away. Those were some long traveling photons that hit my camera!
The Annotated Image
An annotated image of M51 created by using Pixinsight’s ImageSolver and AnnotateImage Scripts.
The Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Man of Canes Venatici - with M51 marked by the yellow arrow.
About the Project
Last night's effort was not serious - just a quick test before the galaxy was cut-off by my garage roof!
Did just a quick 10 frames of 90 seconds each. Not even any cal frames. But - it was my first Galaxy.
I have observed this in much larger telescopes under very dark skies and have not seen this much detail! I can't wait to come back and do this one the right way!
More Information
Wikipedia: Messier 51
HubbleSite.org: "X" STRUCTURE AT CORE OF WHIRLPOOL GALAXY (M51)
Capture Details
Light frames
Number of frames is after bad or questionable frames were culled.
10 x 90 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain, ZWO Gen II L Filter
Total of 0.25 hours
Cal Frames
None
Capture Hardware
Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO refractor
Guide Scope: Televue 76mm Doublet
Camera: ZWO AS2600mm-pro with ZWO 7x36 Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Software
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second-guessing, editor regret and much swearing….
I was still learning to use the main rig, when I soon made my first modification. I was doing the Polar Alignment the old fashioned way - using an illuminated polar scope. This caused me to kneel down on the driveway and look up through the polar axis. This was killing my knees, my back and my neck! I hated it and I was sure I was not getting very good alignments with it…..