Exposures: 90 minutes of Lum (10 min subs) and 60 min each of RGB (10 min subs) for a total of 4 hrs 30 min.
Located 23 million light years away
M51 is an example of an interacting galaxy, shown here with NGC5195 (smaller galaxy; upper right) . Recent supernova data place M51 at 23 million light years distant. Hubble images show NGC5195 to be tugging the arm of M51 generating strong tital forces sufficient to initate star birth. NGC 5195 has been passing behind the spiral arms of M51 for several hundred million years..
FOV = 30.1 x 20.1 arc minutes
Image reduced to 60% of original size.
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