The Whirlpool Galaxy is located in the constellation Canes Venatici and its light travelled 31 million years to reach us. In the northern hemisphere it can be observed during Spring, the so called galaxy season.

M51 is the catalogue name of the galaxy. It is an "interacting grand-design spiral galaxy". Interacting means that the galaxy interacts with another and is thus distorted. Grand-design means that the galaxy has large and well-defined arms. Furthermore, the nucleus of the galaxy is a Seyfert 2 region.

Seyfert galaxies make up about 10% of all galaxies and are among the most intensively studied objects in astronomy. These galaxies are among the most active due to their large supermassive black holes at the centre (also called nuclei). Seyfert 2 galaxies have a bright nucleus and appear also very bright in the infrared range.