Messier 51

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Kevin Phillips

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Jan 17, 2026, 3:48:58 AM (5 days ago) Jan 17
to 'drjamesr@aol.com' via croydonastro

Two nights ago I captured this beautiful whirlpool galaxy designated as Messier 51 after French astronomer Charles Messier who has painstakingly discovered and catalogued over 100 galaxies, nebula, and star clusters. His main objective was searching for asteroids, why he catalogued star cluster no one really knows for sure, because star cluster are easily not to be mistaken for an asteroid even through a primitive telescope you can see that they are stars. 

The whirlpool galaxy is about 23million light years from earth and it's a grand design galaxy, it seems the NGC galaxy is being sucked into the whirlpool galaxy and may have already done so since it took thousands of years to reach earth. What we are looking at is the past not the present. 

This image took nearly 10 hrs to capture at a rate of 5 mins per exposure. Started 8pm in the Evening and finish around 6am next morning. It was nearly minus 2 and everything was frozen even my scope; it's a good job I had heater band around the glass so it does not freeze over.  It took a further two days to process it until I got as close, I could get it . Thank you for taking the time to read this article, I hope you enjoyed the image.
1000159164.jpg
1000159163.jpg

drja...@aol.com

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Jan 17, 2026, 11:14:48 AM (5 days ago) Jan 17
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 Hi Kevin

That really brings out the beauty of the objects, not least the sparkling clusters of young stars in the arms.  I believe that adding Ha data enhances those features. 

I particularly like the wider angle view showing the conjunction of whatever large star that is and the galaxy.  

James




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On 17 Jan 2026, at 08:49, Kevin Phillips <Thewelsha...@hotmail.com> wrote:


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Kevin Phillips

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Jan 17, 2026, 11:44:46 AM (5 days ago) Jan 17
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Thank you, James, for your comments. Did you notice 3 orher galaxies in wide image?
From: 'drja...@aol.com' via croydonastro <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2026 4:14:15 PM
To: croydo...@googlegroups.com <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [croydonastro - 8174] Messier 51
 

drja...@aol.com

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Jan 17, 2026, 12:22:56 PM (5 days ago) Jan 17
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No!   But I have now, expanding the image on my ipad rather than on my postage stamp phone screen.   A fantastic catch and ten more points for the wide angle view over the close up in my book.

Plus there's a nice line of sight effect with the star I mentioned.  For me, both the star and galaxy have equal significance in the compositional quality of the image, yet the galaxy must be millions/billions times larger than the star.

James


Sent from my iPad

On 17 Jan 2026, at 16:44, Kevin Phillips <Thewelsha...@hotmail.com> wrote:


Thank you, James, for your comments. Did you notice 3 orher galaxies in wide image?

From: 'drja...@aol.com' via croydonastro <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2026 4:14:15 PM
To: croydo...@googlegroups.com <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [croydonastro - 8174] Messier 51
 
 Hi Kevin

That really brings out the beauty of the objects, not least the sparkling clusters of young stars in the arms.  I believe that adding Ha data enhances those features. 

I particularly like the wider angle view showing the conjunction of whatever large star that is and the galaxy.  

James


Sent from my iPad

On 17 Jan 2026, at 08:49, Kevin Phillips <Thewelsha...@hotmail.com> wrote:



Two nights ago I captured this beautiful whirlpool galaxy designated as Messier 51 after French astronomer Charles Messier who has painstakingly discovered and catalogued over 100 galaxies, nebula, and star clusters. His main objective was searching for asteroids, why he catalogued star cluster no one really knows for sure, because star cluster are easily not to be mistaken for an asteroid even through a primitive telescope you can see that they are stars. 

The whirlpool galaxy is about 23million light years from earth and it's a grand design galaxy, it seems the NGC galaxy is being sucked into the whirlpool galaxy and may have already done so since it took thousands of years to reach earth. What we are looking at is the past not the present. 

This image took nearly 10 hrs to capture at a rate of 5 mins per exposure. Started 8pm in the Evening and finish around 6am next morning. It was nearly minus 2 and everything was frozen even my scope; it's a good job I had heater band around the glass so it does not freeze over.  It took a further two days to process it until I got as close, I could get it . Thank you for taking the time to read this article, I hope you enjoyed the image.

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Kevin Phillips

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Jan 17, 2026, 12:51:36 PM (5 days ago) Jan 17
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Thank you James
I guess my new camera is not too bad after all
From: 'drja...@aol.com' via croydonastro <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2026 5:22:28 PM
To: croydo...@googlegroups.com <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [croydonastro - 8176] Messier 51
 
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