4.5h  OSC image of M82  at F4,  D=300mm under Bortle 7 moonless skies with a ~ 7h HA (7 nm) monocamera image - accumul;ated whenever ithe skies were reasonably  clear - partly added into the red channel and combined into the luminance.  1.5 h of selected short 10s luminance mono frames combined into a relatively sharp FWHM 2.0 image.  All of the  equipment was controlled from within SharpCap 4.0 and frames captured --along with master flats and darks - in Sharpcap using filters to reject high FWHM and dim frames. Pre-pocessing and processing was in PixInsight. The 10s luminance mono frames were combined into a relatively sharp FWHM 2.0 image. The HA was combined into the red channel of the OSC image and the combined luminance further combined with the BlurXterminator deconvolved mono10s image into an overall high dynamic range luminance composition made starless with StarExterminator 2.03. This HDRC luminance was then combined into the starless OSC image and further stretched in PI using EXP, local histogram equalization and Curves before RGB stars were combined back in. The image was further improved in Affinity Photo.

M82 is a starburst galaxy about 12 million light years away and seen edge on.  Tidal interactions with M81 are thought to have triggered rapid star formation activity with nearly 200 massive clusters having been detected by  the HST  in the starburst core.   There is a network of gaseous filamentary structures (IFN) which comprise hydrogen and other material stripped  away due to gravitational tidal interactions  in the space between M81 and both of the closeby galaxies in the M81 group , M82 and NGC3077.  It is the infall of this gas back into to the centre of M82  has led to vigorous star formation there.  This region, rich in dust and HII is visible here as the streams of red light expanding and emanating from and into the core region.As a starburst galaxy, Messier 82 is also prone to frequent supernova, caused by the collapse of young, massive stars.   The first confirmed supernova recorded in the galaxy was SN 2004am, a type II supernova  discovered in March 2004.  Many more are suspected to have occured in previous decades -some obscured by dust.