I'm not alone in loving these two galaxies and as several others I too got inspired by the BAT project where imagers went together to do deep imaging sessions on these objects. Funnily enough this was therefore among my first objects when I started with a dedicated camera, although with a lot less data, which can be seen here: https://www.astrobin.com/wyhg2c/?_ga=2.65854376.70530891.1711890012-902289561.1701549131

I always intended to go back but was biding my time waiting to get a larger camera and telescope. During autumn 2023 I started and I honestly hadn't intended to stop gathering data this season, but I just couldn't wait anymore. A painstakingly 60 hours long stacking process and countless attempts on getting it the way I wanted it to be. M81 and M82 was a challenge the first time, and I dare say it was even harder now. Finding a balance between pushing IFN and getting a decent galaxy takes patience, and I'm pretty content at where I got the data now.

With the Ha data I was able to pull out the entire Ha jet streams from M82, interestingly there is also a faint ball of Ha in the far left of the blue:


The much fabled blue stream is also very prominent here as I, with intention, pushed it through the Ha here. The exact origins aren't really clear as far as I know. But here is a pretty detailed look at the structures. According to the BAT project it is believed that these blue streams are in fact part of a huge shock wave caused by super winds in the starburst regions within the galaxy. 

We also get a closer look at all the intersting nebulosity in M81, which is pretty cool considering how far away it is, they get kind of washed out by pushing the IFN so I've darkened the image a bit here: 


And here's the finished version where you can just about make out the fainter spiral arms that are "pulling away" from the galaxy core:


The image isn't only showcasing the massive amounts of IFN in this region, but also a huge amount of galaxies as can be seen in the starless image. A chosen few of the more prominent ones are;

NGC 2961 & NGC 2959:


Leda 28731:


UGC 5302:


SDSS J094505.44+684511.6 - An active Galaxy Nucleus Candidate  (Right next to the cross)


UGC 5210:


Leda 27949 (Another AGN Candidate):


UGC 5247: