Summer in the Northern Hemisphere means it's galaxy season. For the past few clear nights, I've been imaging galaxies in Ursa Major as they clear the trees on the east side of my property. This image of M51 was taken under conditions of below-average seeing and wind in my Bortle 8 skies. I had to throw away a number of subs, and ended up stacking 104 x 20s integrations--some of which I should also have thrown away. The result, however, was pretty decent, as the resulting image shows:
M51 is an interesting object. The main spiral galaxy is attended by a companion, NGC 5195, which appears to have passed through the main disk of M51 twice. A gas and dust-rich tidal bridge connects the two objects. The interactions between the two galaxies have triggered a burst of starbirth in the central regions of M51. NGC 5195 has a massive black hole which is "burping" huge waves of gas. M51 is also Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole.
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