Lying around 30 million light years from Earth. M51 “The Whirlpool Galaxy” is one of the best known galaxies in astrophotography.
M51 is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. There is very strong interaction with the small galaxy M51A. It situated in Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy.
Imaged in LRGB and H Alpha at SRO, OTA CDK 14.
Image Processing: Mike Selby