M51 - The Whirpool Galaxy

19:43 26/3/2009 UTC

We have now clear nights after each other several days in a row now. This time I decided to image Whirpool Galaxy even it is a bit small for my scope. The Whirpool Galaxy M51 is in constellation Canes Venatici about 23 million light years from us. M51 is like a textbook example of spiral galaxy. This image is luminance only, since I don't have RGB filters yet and I have not matching field DSLR image.

Camera: Atik Instruments 4000LE | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Baader IR/UV block | Guiding: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: L: 48x180s(2h24m) CCD @ -20°C f6 | Software: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Artemis Capture, GradientXTerminator Plugin | Location: 60°31'N 26°52'E (Koivula/Kotka,FI)