Saturday, March 17, 2012

Astrophoto: Stunning Detailed Look at the Whirlpool Galaxy by John Chumack

Astrophoto: Stunning Detailed Look at the Whirlpool Galaxy by John Chumack:

A 17.5 hour exposure of M51, The Whirlpool Spiral Galaxy also known as NGC-5194. Credit: John Chumack
Wow! Astrophotographer John Chumack has done it again with a spectacular, long exposure view of the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. “This is my best and most detailed image of M51 to date, and now my longest exposure on a single object,” John said. “Definitely a lot of work, but I now feel it was worth all the processing time, which actually exceeded the 17.5 hours of imaging time!”
Visible are faint tidal tail structure details. “I can see several dust lane structures running through the tidal tail as well as faint background galaxies behind the tidal tail!” John said.
This long exposure image was taken over seven separate nights in early 2010, 2011 with John’s homemade 16″ F4.5 Newtonian Scope. See more details below, or on Flickr. You should also check out John’s website, Galactic Images, where you can see all his beautiful handiwork.


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