Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 (jewzaam)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: IC 4263 · IC 4278 · M 51 · NGC 5169 · NGC 5173 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · NGC 5198 · NGC 5229 · Whirlpool Galaxy

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Whirlpool Galaxy, M51

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Whirlpool Galaxy, M51

Located near the handle of Ursa Major, this galaxy is 31 million light-years from Earth. It is the first galaxy classified as a spiral galaxy. The smaller companion galaxy is designated NGC 5195.

Captured this on my first night using my new EQ6-R and Z73 and was limited by clouds rolling in. Since first processing the data I've moved to PixInsight and it's a whole new world. Same data and I get such a better outcome. I wouldn't mind more data on this target but with what I've processed now I'd be happy to revisit later.. there are so many other amazing things in the sky to capture!

B

Description: Stacked without darks which reduced some banding noise and seems cleaner in post-processing. Kept a bit more of the frame this time around as the corners were not as wonky. Didn't fiddle with colors or hue this time.

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Re-processed in PixInsight. It does almost everything better! Only thing I had to pop out for was to tweak a luminance mask for just the main galaxies. Huge difference from the original!

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: Tweaked final curves.. just can't leave it alone!

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E

Description: Overhaul of my workflow in PixInsight, got more to pop in the main galaxy. Don't feel I compromised on the surrounding either. It's one of those shots I am wondering if I should start cropping. But I like the full shot, only slightly cropped for artifacts at edges. I feel it tells the full story of the image. It isn't an artistic view though and I may start cropping at some point for smaller targets. Composition matters, right?

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F

Description: Added color calibration and changed curves.

Uploaded: ...

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4377085
PixInsight job	84VTAMVFYQYTVIW0FERFT6MNE63YCGJ4
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	13h30m03s.30
RA (top/left)	13h24m10s.93
RA (top/right)	13h24m35s.91
RA (bottom/right)	13h35m36s.52
RA (bottom/left)	13h35m49s.22

Dec (center)	+47°11′06″.2
Dec (top/left)	+48°36′41″.6
Dec (top/right)	+45°43′50″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	+45°44′31″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+48°37′26″.5

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Whirlpool Galaxy, M51

Whirlpool Galaxy, M51

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Whirlpool Galaxy, M51

Whirlpool Galaxy, M51

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