M51, the famous "Whirlpool Galaxy" was the first galaxy shown to have a spiral form. It was discovered by Messier in October, 1773, and the intriguing spiral pattern was first detected by Lord Rosse in Ireland in 1845. M51 is an Sc type spiral at a distance of about 35 million light years. The diameter is a little over 100,000 light years, so that M51 appears to be more or less the equal of M31, the Andromeda system. M31 however, lies much closer to us, at a distance of 2.2 million light years, and thus appears much larger. The zoomed image is a 3x digital zoom of the first image. Object: M31 (NGC 5194-5195) Coordinates: Right Ascension 13hr 27.8m, Declination +47deg 27m Constellation: Canes Venatici Size: 12 x 6 minutes of arc Magnitude: 9 Telescope focal length: 500mm Telescope aperture: 80mm Camera: Santa Barbara Instruments ST-6 Exposure: 400s (20 @ 20s) Observer(s): Dr. Greg Latta