Messier 51 (Canes Venatici)
Fig. 1: One of the most imaged, observed and written about deep-sky objects since it was discovered in 1773: The grand design spiral galaxy Messier 51 in Canes Venatici, photographed with a 16-inch f/4.5 Dob on an equatorial platform.
| Object name: | Constellation: | Coordinates: | Apparent size: | Visual brightness: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Messier 51 (= NGC 5194) | Canes Venatici | 13h30m / +47°12' | 11.2' x 6.9' | 8.4 mag |
The famous interacting spiral galaxy Messier 51 (NGC 5194, "Whirlpool Galaxy") with its small companion galaxy NGC 5195 in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Messier 51 is about 31 million light-years from Earth and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1773. The smaller galaxy NGC 5195 was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain (source: Wikipedia).
Exposure time: 1h 16min (23x approx. 3min) at ISO 400, taken on May 31 / June 1, 2014. Processing with Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop. No calibration frames were taken.
Equipment: Canon EOS 450D Baader modified camera, TeleVue Universal Paracorr coma corrector, 16" f/4.5 "Ninja" dobsonian telescope riding on a dual-axis Tom Osypowski equatorial platform, Lacerta MGEN autoguider, Lacerta off axis system.
Field of view comparison: image of the moon with the same setup.
Fig. 2 - Search chart for Messier 51. Copyright 2025 'The Mag-7 Star Atlas Project', www.siaris.net.