This image is still from the data I captured back in February, during a stretch of good skies that I have slowly been working through.
For this version of the Whirlpool Galaxy, I combined data from two different telescopes, with the goal of bringing out the intense star-forming regions scattered throughout its spiral arms. The red/pink knots are areas rich in ionized hydrogen, where new stars are actively forming and lighting up the surrounding gas.
M51 is already one of the most beautiful galaxies in the night sky, but adding the hydrogen data gives it a completely different character.
The Space Koala Astrophotography by Luca Bartek 
