Located about 24.3 million light years away from earth in constellation Canes Venatici, M51 and its companion NGC515 are two of the closest neighbors of our Milky Way Galaxy.

The interaction of these two unequal neighbors probably triggered an unusual high rate of star formation in M51. Furthermore M51 has an active galactic nucleus indicating the presence of supermassive black hole in its center which is currently having an opulent meal from its surrounding accretion disk.

A wonderful target …

Celestron EDGE HD8 at Prime Focus F=2080mm, F/10
Skywatcher EQ6R Pro mount
ASI2600mc Pro
No filter
Bortle 4-5
91x300sec (7h35m)

PixInsight