M51, the 'Whirlpool Galaxy', is an interacting grand design spiral galaxy. It's technically in Canes Venatici, but proximity just a few degrees from the end of the 'handle of the familiar Big Dipper asterism makes it an easy target for telescope and binocular observers. M51 lies 23 million light years away. It's interacting with dwarf galaxy NGC 5195, and there is evidence that a tidal stream of gas and dust connect the two.

This HaRGB CCD image was acquired at the Cosmic Campground (near Alma, NM) using my Stellarview 115mm triplet, an Atik 460 CCD and a newly-acquired Atik filter wheel. The camera was cooled to -10C; 10-minute subs were acquired over the course of two nights.

Images were aligned and stacked using Nebulosity. Nebulosity was also used to synthesize the image from the LRGB stacks. The Ha data was added using Photoshop. The faint galaxy to the lower left is NGC 4263 (mag 15.2)

The field of view used to acquire the image is shown on the right.

Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)

Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)