The Whirlpool by AstronomyMan

Photography • Space • posted on Jun 18, 2009

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Description

A redo of one of my favourite little faint fuzzies. This is the Whirlpool Galaxy in Ursa Major (commonly known as M51 in that frenchman's list of things that are not comets n'est pas....). The reason for the repost...... I bought a new mount for my rinky dinky telescope. It tracks the image (by computer control) to keep it absolutely in the field of view (needs to track because your planet will not stay still, it keeps rotating). The image is further stabilized by use of a second telescope mounted on the first with a second camera attached to it. Software watches one star through the second telescope and instructs the mount to keep that star from moving. As such I can now take 10 minute long exposures or longer (but I am too impatient). This one is 20*10 minute exposures, stacked and averaged and then subjected to digital developent processing.

Comments (16)

stoneac

8:48AM | Thu, 18 June 2009

I like this. I have a 6" dobs telescope myself and I know how hard it is to find these things, let alone get a decent photo. Both of which I am very limited. Nice job and very well done!

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costapanos

8:55AM | Thu, 18 June 2009

Excellent shot!

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Merlin_Studios

11:00AM | Thu, 18 June 2009

Fantastic capture, very impressive.

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gloriatanta

11:04AM | Thu, 18 June 2009

Simon, my friend... one day I'll understand all these technical details. For now I just admire the incredible beauty of your photos. As the old and dear Spock would say: FASCINATING! Hug!

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TwoPynts

3:36PM | Thu, 18 June 2009

A beaut! :)

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GBCalls

6:35PM | Thu, 18 June 2009

I so appreciate the time and effort you took to capture this. Well done

whaleman

12:26AM | Fri, 19 June 2009

A fascinating look into space and into the past as well. It took considerable effort to achieve this quality. ZOOM PLEASE - WELL WORTH IT!

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Speech

9:43AM | Fri, 19 June 2009

Very cool

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DrMcQuark

3:57PM | Fri, 19 June 2009

Incredible! We'll have to see who we talk to about getting our planet to hold still for a little. ;)

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gibby.g

2:52AM | Sat, 18 July 2009

Very impressive, I had no idea we can see these with home telescopes.

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stevey3d

10:46AM | Fri, 24 July 2009

Fantastic image! I have always had a fascination with space photography. Wonderful!

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Darkwish

2:02PM | Fri, 22 January 2010

I like this one. Nice work.

M2A

12:54AM | Tue, 02 February 2010

Impressive photo, very good.

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2Loose2Trek

9:39PM | Wed, 03 February 2010

When viewing the heavens in this resolution it occurs to me that our greatest achievements and worst actions pale into complete insignificance in the grand scheme. Superb image ... it looks and sounds like you know your way around celestial photography.

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