M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy – Another year, another try
Every year I image the “Whirlpool Galaxy” (really a pair of galaxies interacting with each other,) and every year it gets a little bit better. This year it was shot from our new observatory, on a newly-tuned mount and with some more image processing experience under my belt. It’s also under slightly darker skies, which means I was able to capture a good image with just 6 hours of exposure time. In our previous home, it would’ve taken a week to get an image that isn’t even this good.
![](http://18.216.0.7/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/M51-proc-1024x841.png)