The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

The famous whirlpool Galaxy.
The distance to this beatiful galaxy ist probably around 30 Million Lightyears - but it's not so sure. The estimations vary from 16 to 37 Millom Ly.
The bright spot on the tip of one spiral-arm is another galaxy (NGC5194), a compagnion of M51. It's the garvity of this copmagnion, which has deformed the shape of the spiral and "pulled out" the outer arms.
The compagnion on the other hand looses a lot of gas. The gigantic "fountains" of gas are here just visible seen as flimsy filaments.

M51 is known to have a supermassive black hole in its core.

There are also a few "Background Galaxies" visible - whose distances are much, much bigger...

The Data:
Meade 8'' LX200 ~ f/10 ~ Canon 20Da
1x12min@ISO3200 + 1x90min@ISO800
Guiding with Off-Axis Guider and Meade DSI.

Darkframe-Reduction (Camera-Internal).

Here's a full-size-version:
http://www.album.de/bild.cfm?action=act_images_details&imageID=388401&albumID=15748&type=original