M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy located about 23 ± 4 million light years away. It is visible in the northern constellation Canes Venatici, just southeast of the Big Dipper. The Whirlpool Galaxy was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. In the Catalogue of Named Galaxies, it is called Typhon Canum Venaticorum, after the Greek god Typhon
With a diameter of approximately 75,000 light years (about 25 percent smaller than our own galaxy) it is the largest galaxy in the M51 Group, a small group of galaxies that also includes M63 (the Sunflower Galaxy), NGC 5023, and NGC 5229.
The central region of the Whirlpool Galaxy is undergoing a period of intense star formation. Like many other galaxies, it has a supermassive black hole at its core, surrounded by rings of dust. The active quasar-like core, that is very luminous, distant and a bright source of electromagnetic radiation, is making the Whirlpool classified as a “Seyfert galaxy”.
Messier 51 is gravitationally interacting with a smaller dwarf galaxy, NGC 5195 in the process of a full-blown merger. According to our current knowledge the small satellite galaxy have crossed the main plane of the Whirlpool Galaxy twice so far. First time 5-600 million years ago, and second time 5-10 million years ago. Because of the gravitational link, the smaller galaxy NGC 5195 will try to cross the M51 galactic plane repeatedly, and after a few hundred million years, the merger will complete. Due to these galactic tideforces there is a tidal bridge rich in gas and dust between the two galaxies, which can be easily observed as dust clouds in front of NGC 5195.
M51 was discovered and categorized on October 13, 1773, by Charles Messier, and its companion galaxy, NGC 5195, was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain.
INSTRUMENT 250/1000 F/4 Newton
CAMERA Canon EOS 60Da
MOUNT Fornax 51
GUIDING Lacerta MGen Autoguider
EXPOSURE TIME 202x5min iso 800
LOCATION Gyöngyös, Hungary
