by Craig and Tammy Temple
M51 in Canes Venatici is a beautiful face-on spiral just 3 degrees NE of Alkaid, the last star in the handle of The Big Dipper. The small companion galaxy is NGC5195. This image is slightly over 3 hours total integration time taken on April 4, 2009. The temperature was about 60° F.
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Celestron C8 SCT with Celestron f/6.3 FR/FF on Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD
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Guided with SSAG on Orion ED80 using PHD
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Canon 350D (self-modified) w/Astronomik EOS Clip IR filter + 2" Hutech IDAS LPS filter
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Best 96/105 120s @ ISO 1600
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Dark/Sky flat/Bias calibration