The forces of rotation caused red hot masses of stones to be torn away from the Earth and to be thrown into the ether, and this is the origin of the stars.

— Anaxagoras 428 BC

Whirlpool Galaxy

By ebfaulkner6a at Sun, 04/15/2012 - 1:03pm
Whirlpool Galaxy

I removed the previous image for an update. Continuing to "get out" while it is clear I decided to go for a longer exposure of M51 guided and then combined color in MaximDL5. The fit image is really nice in color, but when I change it to jpeg the results are different. So I present it as it is in jpeg format. It is a combined 210 min. LRGB consisting of 120L, 30R, 30G, and 30B at 5 min exposures, from 8:45 pm til 00:36 am on Friday evening 4-14-12.