M51, the Whirlpool Nebula, NGC 5194/5195

This image of M51 was taken with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope located at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ. Located in the constellation of Canes Venatici, the "hunting dogs", M51 consists of the large spiral galaxy NGC5194 and its smaller companion NGC5195. Hot, massive stars which recently formed in NGC5194 give the galaxy its bluish color. The reddish areas are nebulae in the galaxy in which stars are rapidly forming. M51 is approximately 31 million light-years away and over 65,000 light-years in diameter. The color image was generated by combining images taken through five filters (B, V, R, I and Hydrogen-alpha). The image shown above is only one tenth of the entire field of view of Mosaic on the 0.9-meter telescope.

Credit:

T.A.Rector and Monica Ramirez/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/

About the Image

Id:noao0124a
Type:Observation
Release date:June 30, 2020, 9:33 p.m.
Size:2500 x 2500 px

About the Object

Name:M51, NGC 5194, NGC 5195, Whirlpool Galaxy
Constellation:Canes Venatici
Category:Galaxies

Image Formats

Large JPEGLarge JPEG
2.4 MB
Screensize JPEGScreensize JPEG
180.4 KB

Zoomable


Wallpapers

1024x7681024x768
182.7 KB
1280x10241280x1024
324.6 KB
1600x12001600x1200
555.5 KB
1920x12001920x1200
782.3 KB
2048x15362048x1536
4.9 MB

Coordinates

ObjectValue
Position (RA):13 29 5.34
Position (Dec):47° 7' 2.73"
Field of view:17.70 x 17.70 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.1° right of vertical


Colors & filters

BandWave-lengthTele-scope
Optical
B
436 nmWIYN 0.9-meter Telescope
Mosaic I
Optical
v
537 nmWIYN 0.9-meter Telescope
Mosaic I
Optical
R
644 nmWIYN 0.9-meter Telescope
Mosaic I
Optical
I
805 nmWIYN 0.9-meter Telescope
Mosaic I
Optical
Ha
656 nmWIYN 0.9-meter Telescope
Mosaic I