The image was obtained by amateur astronomer R. Jay GaBany.
The "Seeing" or sky/atmospheric conditions were likely better than when the previous image was obtained. Or, he obtained a better camera/equipment, lol..
Either way, it's light years better than mine M51 below. Of course, he's operating in much darker skies than I, and I believe his scope is twice the aperture.
M51--About 37 million light years out. Shot on 5/30/2010, 40D- 10" SCT 35x120 second exposures W/8 darks, @ISO 800 - 6.3 focal reducer-Astonomik LP filters.
M51 is really a spectacular galaxy.
My mistake...
The left panel image was produced with a half meter RCOS telescope and a SBIG STL-11000 camera between July 1 and 7, 2005. Exposure times: 225 minutes Luminance, 45 minutes Red, 36 minutes Green, 54 minutes Blue (1X1).
The right panel image was produced with a RCOS half meter telescope, Apogee Alta U16M camera and Astrodon E-Series filters between May 5 and June 7, 2011 Exposure times: 480 minutes Luminance, 120 minutes Red, 120 minutes Green, 120 minutes Blue (All 1X1).