With all those small, faint ARP galaxies and quasars, one would almost forget that the visually most spectacular ARP galaxy is right under our nose under the name of ARP85, better known as the Whirlpool Galaxy or Messier 51.

The string of nights with high cirrus clouds continue, but there are clear moments and I managed to get 3 hours of integration time on this target and pull out a lot of detail in post-processing.

Interesting also to compare with some of my older attempts to see how I’m evolving in this hobby. Below two images were my first attemps with a planetary camera and no guiding or complicated post-processing. I couldn’t believe I was imaging colliding galaxies from my backyard. I still can’t believe sometimes.

Let’s see if we can bag a few more galaxies before we’re back to planets, nebulae and other peculiarities.