This is the probably most famous example of interacting galaxies. The smaller, irregularly shaped companion, NGC 5195 (top) appears to be merging with the prominent spiral M 51 (bottom). The gravitational interaction distorts somehow the symmetry in the larger galaxy and generates vivid star formation. The tiny beads you see in the structures of the spiral arms are the cradles of new star generations. The even more spectacular feature in this intergalactic collision are the faint but extensive outbound streaks indicating that billions of stars are ejected from the galaxies by the tidal waves in ultra-slow motion.

Apart from the spectacular appearance M51 is famous for being the first galaxy in which a spiral structure was discovered by the Earl of Rosse in 1845. Upcoming generations of astronomers found many more spiral-shaped galaxies and saw that this is a very common pattern. But eventually M 51 received the nickname "Whirlpool Galaxy".

Do not forget to click on the picture for a larger version. Feel free to search for all the faint background galaxies which are decorating the field of view. But pay attention. If you should be seeing something that resembles a faint star cluster, but in this view far away from the milky way plane, it is probably a cluster. But it is a cluster of galaxies, not of stars! If you should have noticed the crowd of tiny brownish smudges to the bottom left of the brightest star in the field, it is the galaxy cluster Zwicky 6057. The photons we are receiving from these galaxies taveled more than 2.3 billon light years until they finally made it to hit my camera sensor! By watching these objects we are looking deeply into the past. It is a past as far as almost 20% towards the origins of our universe that evolved 13.7 billon years ago...

The night was a bit suboptimal, the air was quite wobbly and the mount was busier than what I experienced a few weeks ago. I tried to tweak the definition of the small details a bit by minor adjustments in the picture processing workflow. I hope you still like the overall result, even if the brighter stars are a bit fattier than what was possible beneath an optimal sky...