Cigar Galaxy
Messier 82, commonly known as “Cigar Galaxy” is one of the most exquisite and well known galaxies, located in the constellation Ursa Major at an estimate distance of 11.4–12.4 million light years. Due to gravitational interactions with its sibling cosmic vortex, M81 “Bode’s Galaxy”, M82 features an irregular morphology with a huge starburst activity, meaning the galaxy experiences exceptionally high rates of star formations. Consequently, this galaxy emits large amounts of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. The image has effectively highlighted these star factory regions with the help of the Hydrogen Alpha filter that was used in the acquisition of data. The galaxy earned its nickname because of its shape that resembles a hand made cigar which has been split apart from the middle and had the tobacco flakes bursting out. Apart from the galaxy itself, many faraway background galaxies can also be observed throughout the image, some of which are located at a staggering distance of 2-3 billion light years away. Many of them have been confirmed with the help of the Simbad database.
The data was acquired in the following dates:
06.02.2024, 07.02.2024, 08.02.2024, 09.02.2024, 30.03.2024, 31.03.2024
Location:
Dâmbovița, Romania
Processing details:
Pixinsight - WBPP, Local Normalization, DBE with GraXpert, Master Luminance generation from all LRGB data, SPCC, SCNR, Generalised Hyperbolic Stretch, Local Histogram Equalization, HDR Multiscale Transform, Ha integration with Pixel Math, BXT, NXT, final adjustments with Curves; Stars were processed separately, SXT, with Masked Stretch, Convolution & Masks to fix saturated star cores typical for Newtonian, SCNR, selective Color Saturation, re-integration with Pixel Math.
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