Saturday, July 16, 2016

M51 "Whirlpool" Remastered

A double-galaxy in Canis Venatici

This is a result of stacking frames captured during two nights: from 8 to 9 of Jul + from 13 to 14 of Jul. Signal-to-Noise ratio is somewhat better than in the previous image.

A pair of intensively interacting galaxies are in the image; it is supposed that the main galaxy and its smaller companion have already passed by or through each other. The smaller galaxy (which probably was an ordinary spiral) has lost its arms and is significantly disrupted.

Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 55-250mm IS II + EQ5
102 light frames in total (98*30sec + 4*120sec)
Last edition on 2016-07-16; IRIS: calibration, stacking using FITStacker12; postprocessing: FITSwork4, RawTherapee; noise reducing: Noiseware Community Edition

The galaxy is located near star Alkaid of Ursa Major. Borders of the picture are depicted in the following photo (which I captured in Spring of 2014):

An annotated image (nova.astrometry.net). Note several other galaxies on the celestial sphere near M51.

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Last frames from the sequence, which were not included in the process: M51 is falling behind an apricot tree.

2016-07-14 0109-0116 UT+3

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