M51

This is another discovery by Charles Messier in 1773. About 80 years later it was established that it was a spiral.

The blob on the left is in fact another galaxy - NGC5195 that is interacting gravitationally with its neighbour. Stars don't crash into eachother, but galaxies do!

This is a 7 hour total exposure, captured over three nights. 5 minute subs. Location central Lyon, France.

A fellow SGL member did a far better job editing this TIFF than what I show here.

Orion 8"RC at f8/1600mm

SW HEQ5-Pro

SXVR-M25C OSC

SW ED80 and Lodestar guiding

Nebulosity 2.5 Capture

PHD Guiding - dithered

AstroArt Preprocessing and Stacking

PS CS5 Edit