The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, is a spectacular sight even under city lights in a short focal length scope like my William Optics RedCat 250/51mm. April is the start of Galaxy season with lots of galaxies visible at night and fewer good narrowband targets for bright city skies. This is a warm up for dark skies in Fort Davis in a couple of weeks. A broadband Baader Neodymium Moon and Skyglow gilter cut the worst of the light pollution from my Bortle 7 home in Austin.

Shot early 2022-04-07 with the RedCat 250/51 mm telescope, Baader Neodymium filter, and ZWO ASI 533 MC camera. Stacked and processed 60 cloud free 3 minute exposures in PixInsight, StarExterminator, Topaz DeNoise, and Photoshop.