M51 (CVn)

M51 (CVn)

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Date/Site: 14. February, 6. and 7. March and 14. and 15. May 2021. Remote observatory on the AAR club's site in Presberg
Exposure/
Filter:
R: 37 x 180 seconds,
G: 30 x 180 seconds,
B: 24 x 180 seconds,
L: 175 x 180 seconds (-20°C)
Camera: Moravian G3-16200 with Astronomik Type II-filters
Optics/
Instrument:
250mm f/4,7 Newton with VIP-3010 Paracorr on 10Micron GM1000 HPS
Guiding: Lodestar attached to a 61mm-finder,
focusing: Microtouch and FocusMax,
data acquired remotely using CCD-Commander and MaximDL 6,
processing: MaximDL 6 and PixInsight 1.8

Because of the bigger chip of the Moravian an object like M51 can be presented in a larger context. Many galaxies surround the interacting NGC 5195 and M51, while several more distant galaxy clusters can be seen in the background.
The small elliptical galaxy NGC 5198 sports a tidal stream in an image by Marc Hanson, reaching over to a dwarf galaxy in it's west. Unfortunately there is no trace of it in my image, however it can be seen in the inverted and enhanced luminance:

M51 (CVn) with the tidal tail of NGC 5198

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Take a look at the extraordinary work of Fabian Neyer. In this ultralong exposed image this tidal stream, several other tidal tails, Hα-clouds around M51 and IFN-cirrus are depicted prominently.
And with this help even in my comparatively short exposure several of these features are detectable.

© Friedhelm Hübner, last revision:  09.12.2024