M81 Group (niteman1946)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: Bode's Galaxy · Cigar Galaxy · M 81 · M 82 · NGC 3031 · NGC 3034 · NGC 3077

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M81 Group

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M81 Group

The M81 group includes M81 (lower center), M82 (upper) and NGC3077 (lower left).

M81 was first identified by John Bode in 1774 and is sometimes referred to as "Bode's Galaxy". The three galaxies in this view are gravitationally connected. The interactions have stripped some hydrogen gas away from all three, causing the formation of filamentary gas structures. As a result, some interstellar gas has fallen into Messier 82 and NGC 3077, leading to strong starburst activity within their centers. (from internet sources)

Used TMB 80SS refractor at F6.3. Employed 196 subs at ISO1600 and 5 minutes each (16.3hr) on 3/04 (53), 3/05 (49), 3/23 (48), 3/24 (21) and 3/25 (25). Processing was done with PixInsight. This is a medium crop -- North is up. This is intended as the final image.

I violated one of the tenets of digital photography by using subs that were "way" over-exposed (lots of Moon on 3/4 and 3/5). Histogram from March 5th was about 80% to the right. Images were mostly white, with maybe a hint of M82. Images from the 4th were only slightly better. No moon on 3/23 through 3/25, but still lots of skyglow. Nevertheless, PixInsight performed like a trouper and processed the lot.

Used 57 subs at 30s each with PI's HDR Composition tool to tease a little more info out of the center of M81.

Fairly satisfied with the results.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6600136
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

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M81 Group

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