Amongst the brightest and most spectacular galaxies visible from the norhern hemisphere, M51 is a classic face on spiral galaxy. This galaxy is listed as 9th magnitude, and 10x7 mins in size. A B-V magnitude of .6 gives it a very sligthly yellowish hue, primarily from the nucleus, here greatly toned down with Maxims DDP. The companion galaxy, NGC5195 above is obviously interacting with M51 indicated by by streamer of material transferring between them, is magnitude 10.5, and 6x5 in overall extent due to a large outer envelope seen here as a diffuse glow around the galaxy. It is much yellower than M51, with a B-V of .9 (Really red stars are 1-2) Although the seeing was less than perfect, this image easily outdoes any film shot I have ever done, over the past 25 years. For examle, I have never recorded any HII regions on film, as pink or red.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
CCD Camera:  SBIG237
Exposure:  LRGB = 30:10:10:12 (RGB Binned 2x2)
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 5/10, Transparency 4/10
Outside Temperature:  32 F
CCD Temperature:  -20 F
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, PW Pro.