Whirlpool Galaxy
A spiral galaxy seen face on, pulling at a smaller companion; the first galaxy whose spiral arms anyone saw.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Kind of object
- Galaxy
- Distance
- 23 million light years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 8.4, a sight for a small telescope
- Size in the sky
- About half the width of the full Moon
- Constellation
- Canes Venatici
- Catalogue
- M 51, NGC 5194
Figures from OpenNGC, CC BY-SA 4.0; the SEDS Messier catalogue, via Wikipedia’s table of Messier objects, CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- AlkaidA blue-white main-sequence star in Ursa Major, about three fingers away.
- MizarA white main-sequence star in Ursa Major, about a fist away.
- Pinwheel GalaxyA galaxy in Ursa Major, about a fist away.
- AliothA white star in Ursa Major, about a fist away.
- M 3A globular cluster in Canes Venatici, about a hand span away.