The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is 31 million light-years away from Earth.
Backyard image with Meade 16″ LX200 @ f6.3 / SBIG ST8E / CFW8 cooled to -10c
OAT was 78 F. 5/15/20
120 min. lum 1×1, 60red, 60 green and 120 blue binned 2×2