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Under very dark skies, with plenty of aperture, swirls are visible, as well as curved bright stretches, but it's not a defined spiral even then.

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Mr. Hrundi,

Depends on what you consider plenty of aperture. In my 8" f/6 under gray skies, the spiral structure of M51 is all there with a vague hint of the bridge to companion, NGC 5195 at just 49x. Pending favorable sky conditions, the galaxy takes on high power well. It pops real nice if I push the mag. to just over 100x..or even better at 122x. Finding that nice sweet spot is key.

Viewing M51 in the 14" dob is really nice...
Viewing M51 in the 18" dob is extremely nice...
Viewing M51 in the 25" dob is out of this world.

Clear Skies to All!

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Best,
Dain
Adirondack Mountains (my true dark sky site)
@ Cedar River Flow



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