Each color channel combined in Meade Envisage as collected.
Aligned channels with each other with Meade AutostarSuite.
Import those files to photoshop 7 via FITS Liberator plugin.
Adjusted levels and Curves a bit
Minor HSL adjustment to taste
Added diffraction spikes via Noel Carboni's actions
A few other adjustments in PS7 that I don't recall, sorry bout that.
Description:
Discovered 1773 by Charles Messier.
The famous Whirlpool galaxy M51 was one of Charles Messier's original discoveries: He discovered it on October 13, 1773, when observing a comet, and described it as a "very faint nebula, without stars" which is difficult to see. Its companion, NGC 5195, was discovered in 1781 by his friend, Pierre Méchain, so that it is mentioned in Messier's 1784 catalog: `It is double, each has a bright center, which are separated 4'35". The two "atmospheres" touch each other, the one is even fainter than the other.' NGC 5195 was assigned an own number by William Herschel: H I.186.
Occasionally, there is some confusion what is meant with the designation M51: The pair (justified by Messier's mention of both "nebulae") or the larger galaxy, NGC 5194. If the pair is meant, NGC 5194 is sometimes called "M51A", and NGC 5195 is then "M51B".
