Images from the NTU telescope

The image was taken by Guillaume Rambaud, a 2nd year student from Universite de Limoges in France. The galaxy was photographed on 22 April, 2010 with the 0.5m telescope at NTU. It shows the Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as M51, located at a distance of approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes Venatici.

This image is a combination of 11 images which were each exposed for 2 minutes using a V filter.

The very pronounced spiral structure of the Whirlpool Galaxy is believed to be the result of the close interaction with its companion galaxy NGC 5195 (located at the bottom of the image).

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