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M81 V10, Stephen Duffy

M81 V10

M81 V10, Stephen Duffy

M81 V10

Description

One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81. Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. This telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. Some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center), contrary to other prominent spiral features. The errant dust lanes may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and the nearby galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame. M81's faint, dwarf irregular satellite galaxy, Holmberg IX, can be seen as a faint blue smudge just left of the large spiral. M81 has a well-determined distance for an external galaxy -- 11.8 million light-years. Text from APOD
Made possible by the help and generosity of Larry Parker, head gaffer.
Vixen VCL200 @ 1800 F/L
Paramount MYT
QSI683
Lum 11.5 hours
RGB 2.5 hours each filter
Ha 4 hours
Taken from Santa Rosa, CA Feb 2022
Updated with additional processing Jan 2023

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M81 V10, Stephen Duffy