Cigar galaxy (M82) & Bode's Galaxy (M81), Christian O. Andersson

Cigar galaxy (M82) & Bode's Galaxy (M81)

Cigar galaxy (M82) & Bode's Galaxy (M81), Christian O. Andersson

Cigar galaxy (M82) & Bode's Galaxy (M81)

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Description

My first proper astrophoto of another galaxy - and I got two of them

Meet the Cigar Galaxy (M82) to the left and Bode's galaxy (M81) some 100k light years further to the right. These distant worlds, 11M light years away from our own galaxy, are outside the Local Group, but still some of our closest neighbors in the Virgo Supercluster and I found them just northwest of the Big Dipper.

You can just barely notice that the Cigar galaxy has an active galactic nucleus - i.e. its central super-massive black hole is in a feeding frenzy!

This image took about 2.5 hours to shoot - 100 separate exposures with 90 second shutter speed stacked together.

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Cigar galaxy (M82) & Bode's Galaxy (M81), Christian O. Andersson