Messier 81 (also NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away, in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy's diameter of 90,000 light years is about half the size of the Milky Way. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size, and active galactic nucleus (including a 70 million sun supermassive black hole), Messier 81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers.

Messier 81 was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 31, 1774, and is sometimes referred to as "Bode's Galaxy". In 1779, Pierre Méchain and Charles Messier reidentified Bode's object, and listed it in the Messier Catalogue. Messier 81 is located approximately 10° northwest of Alpha Ursae Majoris along with several other galaxies in the Messier 81 Group.

Messier 81 can be viewed easily using binoculars and small telescopes. Telescopes with apertures of 8 inches (20 cm) or larger are needed to distinguish structures in the galaxy. Its far northern declination makes it generally visible for observers in the northern hemisphere.

Most of the emission at infrared wavelengths originates from interstellar dust. This interstellar dust is found primarily within the galaxy's spiral arms, and it has been shown to be associated with star formation regions. The general explanation is that the hot, short-lived blue stars that are found within star formation regions are very effective at heating the dust and thus enhancing the infrared dust emission from these regions.

Only one supernova has been detected in Messier 81. The supernova, named SN 1993J, was discovered on 28 March 1993 by F. García in Spain. At the time, it was the second brightest supernova observed in the 20th century.

Messier 81 is the largest galaxy in a group of 34 galaxies located in the constellation Ursa Major. Fairly near to Earth, it makes this group and the Local Group, containing the Milky Way, relative neighbors in the Virgo Supercluster. [Source: Wikipedia]

CAPTURE Information: 
The image was captured with the iOptron CEM120 mount , the venerable Meade 12"LX200 SCT, and my new QHY295m Pro mono cmos camera at F7.16 (2182mm FL).
Image subs were taken through Astronomik's broadband filters of Lum, Red, Green and Blue, along with the narrowband filter Ha.

IMAGE information -- 2022
This is a combination of L, R, G, B and Ha.
LUM : 61 subs (5.08 hrs.) on Jan 25th and 28th, 2022.
RED : 20 subs (1.67 hrs.) on Jan 25th, 2022.
GRN : 20 subs (1.67 hrs.) on Jan 25th and 28th, 2022.
BLU  : 20 subs (1.67 hrs.) on Jan 28th, 2022.Ha    : 20 subs (1.67 hrs.) on Jan 28th, 2022.
All exposures were at 5 minutes (300s) each, 1x1 bin, -10C, Gain 1600 and Offset 56.

I used the technique presented on Harry's Astroshed site for adding the Halpha images to the red images. You can see in the finished product where the isolated Hydrogen Alpha features are prominent in red.

The horizontal striations (lines) towards the galaxy's right side are real. It is believed they resulted from gravitational effects from M82.

Luminance was generated using only subs from the LUM filter.  Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th from several years back.

COMMENTS:
The image is comparable to my 2019 version done with my old Atik 383L+ mono CCD camera.  Actually, I feel it is better with much less noise, and better framing. However, I’m somewhat disappointed with the quality of the color element.  There is a fairly severe color gradient that was difficult to reduce (much less remove).  I hammered the color portion several times to reduce the greenish cast in the right hand half of the galaxy.  I assume the cause was that this portion was actually the lower section of the galaxy as it hung directly above the murky lights of downtown Burleson Texas. 

Not sure there is anything further to be done with this problem.

I continue to image with my new QHY294m Pro mono cmos camera, and have settled on the “gain” and “offset” (1600 and 56 respectively), and the use of Lights, Darks, Flats and Flat Darks for processing.