Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Bode's Galaxy  ·  Cigar Galaxy  ·  M 81  ·  M 82  ·  NGC 3031  ·  NGC 3034
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M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY, Jian Yuan Peng
M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY
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M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY, Jian Yuan Peng
M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY
Powered byPixInsight

M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY

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Acquisition details

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Description

M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY

These two galaxies, about 150,000 light-years distance in Ursa Major, started to close to each other about 20 million years ago which made M81 more massive and larger and deformed M82 to a starburst formation by gravitational interactive.

M81(on the right) is known as Bode´s Galaxy(NGC 3031) which is a spiral galaxy with a radius of 45,000 light years and 11.74 million light-years away from Earth. M81 has a very active nucleus center - a supermassive black hole with a mass of around 70 million times the mass of our Sun.

M82(on the left) is known as Cigar Galaxy(NGC 3032) which is a starburst galaxy with a radius of 18,500 light years and 11.4~12.4 million light years away from Earth. M82 is famous for its heavy star-forming activities affected by its larger neighbor galaxy M81. Scientists have discovered the supernova and the brightest pulsar by studying M82.

M81 and M82 can be viewed easily using binoculars and a small telescope during the spring.

Technical details:

Telescope: TEC 160FL + TEC FRC 0.9x

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach 2 GTO

Imaging cameras: ZWO ASI6200MM

Software: PHD2, PixInsight, Lightroom 6.4, Sequence Generator Pro, Photoshop CS6

PhotometricColorCalibration data:

Resolution ............... 0.783 arcsec/px

Rotation ................. -90.769 deg

Observation start time ... 2021-03-31 04:57:38 UTC

Observation end time ..... 2021-04-11 04:36:33 UTC

Focal distance ........... 990.11 mm

Pixel size ............... 3.76 um

Field of view ............ 1d 30' 9.5" x 59' 30.3"

Image center ............. RA: 9 55 29.685 Dec: +69 22 08.18

Location: Palo Alto, California, USA

Filter: Astrodon 50mm Unmounted LRGB Gen2 E-Series Filter Sets

Blue 81x300" 6.75 Hours Bin1x1

Green 80x300" 6.6 Hours Bin1x1

Red 81x300" 6.75 Hours Bin1x1

LUM 222x120" 50x180" 9.9 Hours Bin1x1

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M81 & M82 - BODE'S GALAXY & THE CIGAR GALAXY, Jian Yuan Peng