Discovered by Charles Messier in 1773, the Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy actively merging with its smaller companion galaxy NGC 5195. Located about 31 million lightyears away in the constellation Canes Venatici, the galaxy spans nearly 77,000 lightyears across.
I couldn't resist a clear night with a new moon to add more data to this project and re-process with some new techniques! Very happy with the new result.
Check out the full frame photo on Astrobin: https://app.astrobin.com/i/uqlu3n
Total integration time: 395 subs x 120s = 13h 10m
Equipment:
- Telescope: Apertura 90mm Triplet Refractor
- Main camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
- Mount: ZWO AM5N
- Accessories: ZWO EAF Pro
- Guidescope: Apertura 32mm
- Guide camera: ZWO ASI220MM Mini
Processing:
- Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
- RC Astro BlurXTerminator
- RC Astro NoiseXTerminator
- RC Astro StarXTerminator
- Adobe Photoshop 2026
by spidermanbyday