The Whirlpool Galaxy offers a stunning show for skywatchers, who get a two-for-one deal in their observation.

Amateur astronomers Glen and Joan Saurdiff caught this view of the Whirlpool - or M51 – galaxy on the left and its nearby neighbor NGC 5195, which has been gliding past its larger companion for hundreds of millions of years. The Saurdiffs took this recent view using a telescope at Arizona’s Kitt Peak Observatory, where a nightly observing program allows skywatchers an opportunity to scan the heavens with high-quality instruments.

The M51 galaxy sits 31 million light-years from Earth towards the constellation Canes Venatici, or the Hunting Dogs.

[About the Kitt Peak Program]

-- Tariq Malik

Credit: Glen and Joan Saurdiff/NOAO/AURA/NSF.