M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy)

Last Thursday (the 23rd April 2026) the continuing good weather meant that I could observe another classic spiral galaxy, M51 The Whirlpool. Like the Whale and the Hockey Stick and M63 this object is also found in Canes Venatici and is located not far from the end of the tail of the bear, Ursa Major. I observed this object three years ago at about this time of year and also back in 2016. Here is what I obtained after 357x15s (1 hour 29.25 minutes):-

All I can say is wow, what a difference! The first frame was at 22:36 BST and the last at 00:35 on the 24th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings. The saturation was increased in Photoshop and the image binned x2. Here is a more close up version using the unbinned image:-

The full impact of this impressive galaxy can be seen in detail. M51 consists of two galaxies that are gravitationally interacting. The larger NGC 5194 is the one designated as M51; the smaller one to the left that is literally being pulled apart is NGC 5195. This is very clear in this deeper image where you can see streams of stars and dust that are being thrown into space (see the reddish light above and below NGC 5195). The spewed matter is probably coming from the spiral arms of both galaxies.

Going back to the wide-field image above, there are a number of other galaxies that can be seen within the frame and I have marked them with the following annotated version (click on the image to see the full size version):-

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4565 (The Needle Galaxy)

Continuing on with the run of good weather we have been experiencing recently, last Wednesday, the 22nd April I was able to turn my attention to another galaxy in Coma Berenices, NGC 4565 which has been nicknamed the Needle Galaxy. NGC 4565 lies close to the North Galactic Pole, a direction which is perpendicular to the plane of our galaxy and so is free from the obscuration of the galactic disc. This explains why so many more galaxies are clearly visible in this direction. Add to this there is the Virgo Cluster of galaxies that lies along the southern edge of this constellation and into the northern part of Virgo. The Moon was only two days to first quarter, so whilst causing some light interference, it wasn't too much of a worry. Here is what I obtained after 296x15s (1 hour 14 mins) of observation:-

The Needle is in the centre of the frame and, as you can see, its sharp shape comes from the fact that this spiral galaxy is seen edge on. There is another large object seen at the far right of this image and that is NGC 4494 - a large elliptical galaxy. The first frame was taken at 22:41 BST and the last at 00:13 on the 23rd. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings. The saturation was increased in Photoshop and the image binned x2.

A more close up view of this galaxy is shown below (using the unbinned image):- 

I have increased the sharpening in this version. You can see clearly the central bulge of the galaxy and a dark dust lane that traverses it. Interestingly, the disc does not appear to be symmetric about the galaxy's centre. There upper half of the disc extends out further than the lower half. This may be due to interaction with other galaxies. There is another galaxy visible to the right and this NGC 4562.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

M100 and associates

On the same evening I was photographing the four day old Moon (the 21st April 2026), I also had a go at imaging the spiral galaxy M100 in the south-west part of the constellation of Coma Berenices. M100 is one of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Here is what I obtained with the Dwarf 3 after 448x15s (1 hour 52 minutes):-

M100 lies at the centre of this frame (click on the image to obtain a better view). The first frame was taken at 22:10 BST and the last at 00:32 on the 22nd. The gain was 60 and the Astro filter was employed. The saturation has been increased in photoshop and the image binned x2. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-

The nice spiral nature of the arms can be seen more clearly, as can a number of other galaxies in the same field (particularly NGC4312 at the lower right). In fact the whole image above has numerous galaxies in it and I have produced an annotated version below:-

I haven't labelled all the galaxies in this image, just some of the brighter ones (again click on the image to get a better view).

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

Crescent Moon

On Tuesday (the 21st April) of this week the clear weather continued and the four day old Moon hung attractively over the western horizon. Before carrying on with my deep sky adventures I thought I would use the Dwarf 3 to photograph it. This is what I obtained at 21:47 BST:-

 

The Dwarf takes 20 frames (in this case with a shutter speed of 1/160s and gain 10) and then stacks them to obtain a better resolution image. I have cropped the original. This is the raw, unprocessed image - I felt that the one obtained in Stellar Studio looked a bit over sharpened. This is actually how the Moon appears to the naked eye with North up and West to the right. Below, I have annotated one or two features of interest:-

January before last I tried drawing the crater Atlas as I saw it though my 4 inch refractor. Vallis Rheita looks like a tectonic valley but is actually formed from an overlapping chain of impact craters.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 (The Whale and the Hockey Stick)

Last Sunday (the 19th April 2026) the weather was dry and clear and the Moon was two days after new. As we get ever closer to May the twilight impinges more and more on our evening sky. On this particular night astronomical twilight ended at about 22:15 BST, so quite late! My target for this evening was the pair of galaxies NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 in Canes Venatici, nicknamed the Whale and the Hockey Stick. Here is what I obtained after 408x15s (1 hour 42 minutes) of observation on my Dwarf 3:-

The first frame was taken at 21:59 BST and the last at 00:10 on the 20th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio with auto settings and the saturation and sharpening were increased in Photoshop. The image is binned x2. For obvious reasons, the Whale Galaxy (NGC 4631) is the one in the upper centre of the frame and the Hockey Stick (NGC 4656) is the one below. Here is an unbinned cropped version of this image:-

The two galaxies do look remarkably like their moniker's. The Whale is an edge-on spiral galaxy and it has a smaller elliptical galaxy NGC 4627 floating above its back. The Hockey Stick galaxy is another edge-on barred spiral galaxy that has been distorted by gravitational interaction with the Whale. In fact both galaxies have been affected by this encounter as star formation has been induced in both. If you look closely at the Hockey Stick (click on the image) you can see a faint band of blue stars stretching off to the left of the blade.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4361 (The Lawn Sprinkler Nebula)

On the same night I observed M63 (the 7th April 2026) and before I had my meltdown with the BAA, I had another go at the Deep Sky Section's Object of Interest. For April, this was NGC 4361 which is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Corvus (the crow). This is quite a difficult object to observe because Corvus only scrapes the horizon from our latitudes in the UK. For the first part of my observation (77x15s) I used the Astro filter in the Dwarf 3 (first frame was at 23:37 BST and the last at 00:02 on the 8th). Even then, I was looking through the branches of my neighbour's apple tree! For the second part (240x15s) I used the Duo-Band filter (first frame 00:04 BST and the last 01:18). This was more successful as by then Corvus had moved into uncluttered field of view.

To combine the results I used the majority of the second observation. Then for a small section around the nebula I replaced it with the combined results added together 50:50. Here is the result:-

The nebula is the small bluish object in the centre of the frame (click on the image to get a better view). Here is a crop of the image:-

I am quite pleased with the result. I think the nebula gets its name because it looks like an old-fashioned lawn sprinkler - one which had two arms that were rotated by the pressure of the water. If you can imagine looking down on such a sprinkler from above I think the two arms are at the 11 o'clock and 5 o'clock positions (though the one at the 5 o'clock is more obvious). 

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

New observation of M63 (The Sunflower Galaxy)

M63 in the constellation of Canes Venatici (the hunting dogs) is a magnitude 8.6 spiral galaxy that lies somewhat northwest of the brightest star Cor Caroli. It makes an isosceles triangle with this star and beta Cvn (Chara). I have observed this galaxy before back in 2021 when I used my 4 inch refractor to take some images. This time I wanted to have a go with my Dwarf 3 smartscope. Since the beginning of April we have had a good run of dry sunny weather and two and a half weeks ago, on the 7th April 2026, I obtained this image of the galaxy:-

The image is based on 383x15s (1 hour 35.75 minutes) of observation. The first frame was taken at 21:31 BST and the last at 23:33. Midpoint 22:32 BST. During the exposures the gain was set to 60 and the astro filter was used. Subsequently, the image was processed in Stellar Studio with auto settings. Finally, the saturation and sharpening have been increased in Photoshop and the final image binned x2 (click on the image to see the full-sized version). At this time the moon was 3 days until last quarter and wouldn't rise until 02:26 BST on the 8th.

M63 is a fairly large (12x8 arc minutes) object and contains lots of tightly wound spiral arms. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-

Some of the detail in the centre of the galaxy has been lost due to over exposure but an idea of the tight spiral arms in the lower part of the galaxy can be seen.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026