M51, popularly known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici.
A smaller galaxy, NGC 5195, can be seen interacting with it as the two galaxies pass each other, tidally interacting and distorting one of the spiral arms of M51. Both galaxies lie more than 31 million light-years from our own galaxy.
I took this image with a TMB92L refractor telescope, a Hutech-modified Canon T3i DSLR, a Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, all on a Celestron AVX mount.
