M81 & M82 in Ursa Major

M81and M82 together form the most famous galactic pair known.  

M81 is a nice spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, the "big bear."  Its size, from earth, is near the equivalent of our full moon; therefore, this is one of the larger galaxies in the night sky from our vantage point.  Here, the majestic and sweeping spiral arms show an abundance of hot, star forming regions. M81 is also known as "Bode's Nebula."  

In contrast to M81, M82 is a peculiar galaxy shown on edge.  Because it is shown on edge it is unclear exactly what type of galaxy this is.  A unique feature of this galaxy is the red ejecta spraying out of the core which I managed to capture here in this image.  M82 is sometimes known as the "Cigar Galaxy" because of its characteristic shape. 

These galaxies are circumpolar for most of the United States, meaning that they rest very near the celestial pole.

Location: The Ballauer Observatory near Azle, Texas
Date: February 16, 2004 (RGB) and April 7, 2004 (Luminance)
Temperature: 60 degrees F
Seeing:  7/10 (1.4 FWHM)
Transparency:  4/10 (dew)
Scope/mount: RGB data - Takahashi FSQ-106 @ f/5 and Celestron CGE mount.  Luminance data - Takahashi FSQ-106 @ f/8 and Tak NJP Temma 2 mount
Camera: SBIG ST-10XME, self-guided
Exposure Info:  LRGB image - 160:80:80:80 minutes (10 min. subexposures RGB, 20 min. subexposures Luminance)
Processing Info: Dark frame calibration (no flats), de-blooming (New Astro Plug-in), registration, and Sigma combine of all channels in MaxIm 3.0. Background compensation, Digital-Development and Lucy-Richardson Deconvolution (10 iterations) in Images Plus.  Final data combine, curves, levels, and color balance in Photoshop CS.

Extra information: Green haloes caused by RGB data being shot at smaller focal length than Luminance.  Deblooming still needs some work as well.

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