M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy
2008-05-10 
This is one of the objects that we always wanted to capture, but have never had the chance. This time the sky was clear, and M51 stood high up in the sky. Even though we had not many hours of dark sky (as the Swedish summer is closing in and it's almost bright the whole night) we had to take this picture fast. The result is very pleasing, even though it had been nice if we could capture some color. 
Date: 2008-05-10 / 20:20:18 UTC
Location: Ekerö, Sweden
Temperature: 0 °C
Telescope: Meade LX200GPS 12" SCT
Camera: Meade DSI-C
Mount: Meade fork-mount
Exposure time: 51 X 21 sec
Reducer/flattener: F/6.3 reducer
Processing: Stretched & sharpened