2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition winners
The Royal Observatory Greenwich presents the winning images of Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012. This free exhibition showcases some incredible images of the sky, ranging from within our solar system to far into deep space. Deep Space category winner, and overall winner: M51 – The Whirlpool Galaxy by Martin Pugh (Australia).
M51- The Whirlpool Galaxy
With your telescope, a little south from the handle of the Big Dipper, you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier catalog, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Image Credit: Marco Burali, Tiziano Capecchi, Marco Mancini (Osservatorio MTM)
Spirals on Earth and in the Heavens
The image pair above features an astrophoto of a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici, taken through my 20-inch (50 cm) telescope, and a GOES satellite image of Hurricane Isabel.
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Two faces of Whirlpool Galaxy
These images by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show off two dramatically different face-on views of the spiral galaxy M51, dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy.
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