Whirpool Galaxy LRGB processing

Messier 51, also known as the Whirpool Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is located 23.5 million light years from Earth and is 76,900 light years in diameter, making it about 88% the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The galaxy has a smaller companion, NGC 5195, which may have passed through Messier 51 about 500 to 600 million years ago.

I managed to find some clear skies just a week before I lost astronomical darkness up here at 63 degrees north and I also was able to use my broadband filters to add to the data I gathered more than a year ago on the Whirpool Galaxy. Using my very limited 510 mm focal length it was a challenge to produce and image that would actually show the galaxy.