More M51 (original) (raw)
Image of the Whirlpool Galaxy M51 in the blue light, from Greg Bothun's collection at the University of Oregon, and theSEDS Deepspace Image FTP Archive. The vivid spiral structure of the inner part of this great galaxy is obvious.
More images from Greg Bothun's collection
[ ![[M51 closeup]](http://messier.seds.org/Pics/More/m51cl_s.jpg)
](../Pics/Jpg/m51close.jpg) [![[PNG]](http://messier.seds.org/Jco/png.jpg)
](../Pics/Png/m51close.png)
[ ![[M51, Bill Keel]](http://messier.seds.org/Pics/More/m51c.jpg)
](../Pics/More/m51c.jpg) [](../Pics/Png/m51c.png)
M51 image from Bill Keel's collection at the University of Alabama. This is a three-color reconstruction from BVR CCD images taken with the 1.1-meter Hall telescope at Lowell Observatory. Evidently, the companion lies well behind the prominent connecting arm, whose dust can be seen obscuring the smaller companion's light. Much of the spiral structure in NGC 5194 (M51 or M51 A) can be traced to the tidal perturbations produced by the companion NGC 5195 (M51B).