Bode, Cigar & the IFN (Michel Makhlouta)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: Bode's Galaxy · Cigar Galaxy · HD85161 · HD85458 · M 81 · M 82 · NGC 3031 · NGC 3034 · PGC 2724146 · PGC 2726822 · PGC 2730379 · PGC 2730409 · PGC 2730709 · PGC 2731294 · PGC 2732102 · PGC 2732338 · PGC 2732720 · PGC 2732797 · PGC 28505 · PGC 28529 · PGC 28757 · PGC 28848 · PGC 3086325 · PGC 3097961

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Bode, Cigar & the IFN

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Bode, Cigar & the IFN

Here we have the famous galactic couple: Bode's Galaxy to the left, and the Cigar Galaxy to the right. Both reside in the constellation Ursa Major, and are located approximately 12 million light-years away from our planet.

Messier 81, or Bode's Galaxy, is a grand design spiral galaxy, which is a type of spiral galaxy with prominent and well-defined spiral arms. While Messier 82, or Cigar galaxy, is a starburst galaxy, which is a type of galaxy undergoing an exceptionally high rate of star formation. M82's starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81.

The IFN, or integrated flux nebula, is also visible in this image. The IFN is comprised of extremely faint gas and dust that is illuminated by the combined flux of light of stars in the Milky Way. These clouds are located several hundred light years above the plane of the Milky Way.

This is not the first time that I attempt to bring out the IFN from my balcony, but the first time I succeed. Several previous attempts failed to bring out this elusive cloud from my Bortle 5/6 area.

Comments and feedback are much appreciated, clear skies.

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
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Top picks
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
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Northern lights
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Landscape

Distribution of data sources

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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
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Amateur hosting facility
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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.
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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	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7449090
PixInsight job	N6GXXETNY8QAWVRXXJSAKBZR7OS8LTAQ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	09h55m46s.29
RA (top/left)	09h59m58s.51
RA (top/right)	10h00m33s.55
RA (bottom/right)	09h51m19s.51
RA (bottom/left)	09h51m13s.66

Dec (center)	+69°20′42″.9
Dec (top/left)	+68°45′18″.4
Dec (top/right)	+69°54′26″.9
Dec (bottom/right)	+69°55′39″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	+68°46′32″.4

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Bode, Cigar & the IFN

Bode, Cigar & the IFN

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Bode, Cigar & the IFN

Bode, Cigar & the IFN

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