M51, the Whirlpool galaxy
M51 or NGC 5194, the Whirlpool galaxy is a wonder to behold at the eyepiece and shows amazing structure in photographic images. It is interacting with the smaller galaxy NGC 5195 which it will possibly merge with. Garry Sedun obtained the frames and I did the processing for this image.
Details
20" f/4.1 telescope at the SDG observatory of Garry Sedun in Arizona.
Camera - SBIG ST2000 XM.
Guidescope WO 80mm f/6.8 APO.
Mount - Paramount ME
Exposures -
14 blue, 26 clear, 16 red and 15 green frames each 240 sec for a total exposure time of 4.73 hours.
Processing in Images Plus, ACR and Photoshop.