Back on May 1st, I photographed The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and the interacting companion known as NGC 5195. This light originated about 25 million years ago only to land on my camera that night. It’s almost incomprehensible how far away it is.
In our night sky from the Phoenix East Valley, this is right below the last star on the handle of the big dipper.
My first attempt from the backyard in Gilbert, AZ consisted of 15 images for a total exposure time of about 55 minutes.
About 1 month later on May 30th, I had the opportunity to go out to a very dark sky observing site just north of Globe, AZ and captured 15 new exposures, for a total of 75 minutes of exposure time. The dark sky allows far greater contrast and I was able to pick up a lot more of the fine detail between the blue bands. I also worked on my white balance, so the light blue coloring is closer to true color. The blue color is created from new star formation regions, they burn bright blue.
Telescope: Celestron 8″ SCT
Mount: Celestron CGX
Camera: ASI071MC Pro
© 2019 Daniel Sepich
