M51 – the whirlpool nebula and a globular cluster

I was at the observatory last night checking out the operation of our recently acquired ZWO ASI533MC camera. It wasn’t a particularly great night for observing, the sky was clear but the “seeing” was mediocre. Nevertheless, I was able to get some pictures to show. Let me just say that I feel there is a lot of upscale potential in these pictures. We still have unresolved problems with the stability of the tracking on our scope which severely limits the length of exposures we can achieve. But I want to show everyone where we are at this point, and hopefully in the future we can get better and better.

Whirlpool Nebula or M51

The Whirlpool Nebula is definitely one of the more spectacular objects you can see in the sky. It is located near the Big Dipper in the constellation Canes Venatici (which means “hunting dogs” in Latin). In current catalogs the object is listed as two separate items. The swirly bit in the lower left is M51 itself, whereas the blob to the upper right is given the designation NGC 5195. When I was a kid the whole thing was considered to be one big unusual galaxy, but back then Pluto was still a planet. So it goes.

M53

I took this picture last night early in the evening just after dark. One thing I love about having a camera on the telescope is that you can see so much more that with just your eye, even with mere 10 second exposures like this one. Looking through the eyepiece at this object all you see is a faint fussy spot – no details, no stars. This is M53, a globular cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices.