M 51 (try again!)

 

Messier 51 - The Whirlpood Galaxy aka NGC 5194

I imaged this recently but did not put in the time needed to get a better image.

This time I increased my total exposure time to 88 minutes at ISO 3200 with each sub exposure being 240 secs each. Stacked in Affinity Photo with bias and dark frames, post processed with Luminar 2018.

Info on M 51 from Wikipedia:

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus.  It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is 31 million light-years away from Earth.

The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195, are easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may be seen with binoculars.  The Whirlpool Galaxy has been extensively observed by professional astronomers, who study it to understand galaxy structure (particularly structure associated with the spiral arms) and galaxy interactions.