Between our own galaxy and M82 there is a large amount of dust, which (illuminated by our Milky Way) is also named "galactic cirrus". Optically it looks as if the Cigar Galaxy is embedded in it, but this is de facto not true.
What I noticed in some images with very long integration times in H-Alpha (also here on Astrobin) is that the reflected light of the cirrus is mixed into the red part of the burst region in M82. But this should not be correct in any case, because the haze of the cirrus and M82 are much too far apart. Probably the continuum light of the cirrus was captured by the H-Alpha filter during the long exposure times. Of course this light is not part of the H-Alpha region of M82. In the end the image processing was a fine balancing act in this case. Hope this is a helpful hint for some of you and that you enjoy my version of the Cigar Galaxy.
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