We have a spectacular image of M51 by David Murray this month!  Known as the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici, this is a double interacting galaxy… the smaller companion, NGC 5195, is not just photobombing the view; gravitational interaction with it likely helps drive the strong spiral density waves that make M51 look so elegantly wound, like a cosmic whirlpool frozen mid-stir.

This image was taken with a William Optics Fluorostar 98 (FLT98) – a premium, Russian-designed air-spaced triplet apochromatic refractor, with an f/6.3 98mm aperture. The image is an LRGB with 232 min of Luminance data consisting of 46 min each of R, G, B for a total of 370 min or 6 + hrs. Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop 2026.

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, is about 30 million light years away and is famous for being the textbook “grand-design” spiral. One less commonly mentioned detail is that its spiral structure was historically important before anyone knew it was a galaxy: in 1845, Lord Rosse used his enormous 72-inch reflecting telescope in Ireland to sketch M51 and identify its spiral form, making it the first “nebula” recognized as having spiral structure. That observation mattered because, at the time, objects like M51 were still debated as cloudy structures inside the Milky Way rather than separate “island universes.”