M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula , the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194 . Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (top), NGC 5195 . The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici . Though M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the human eye, deep images like this one can reveal the faint tidal debris around the smaller galaxy.