Messier 81 also called the Bode'sGalaxy is a large spiral galaxy that is about 12 million light-yearsaway from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. Discovered byJohann Elert Bode in 1774 and reidentified by Pierre Mechain andCharles Messier in 1779.
Messier 82 also known as the CigarGalaxy is a starburst galaxy also within the constellation Ursa Majorat a distance of 12 million light-years away. This galaxy, if youwere to be within it, would be brighter than our own Milky Way. TheHubble Space Telescope has detected almost 200 massive clusterswithin the core, also producing young stars at a very fast ratecompared to our own galaxy.
M81, and M82 are gravitationallyinteractive, also including a smaller galaxy NGC 3077. Due to thisinteraction these three galaxies have been stripped of hydrogen whichhave formed gaseous filamentary structures within the group.
'X' marks the location of M81 & M82
My observation: Through my telescopeMessier 81 and 82 are clearly visible as two fuzzy objects; M81 beingmore round, and M82 being a a longer object giving it it's name ofthe Cigar Galaxy. No dust lanes are visible with either galaxy. Thebright cores of both of these fade out to the edges and make it alittle difficult to separate the core from the rest of the galaxy.Both are easily visible within the same field of view with lowmagnification. I was not able to resolve NGC 3077 with my telescope,again it could be due to the light pollution, or just that my eyeswere not properly dark adapted.
M81 & M82 with NGC 3077 as a small fuzzy blob to the upper left side.
This image is 28 images at 30 seconds apiece, 20 dark images, and 20 bias images. Taken on April 18, 2012. Stacked in Deep SkyStacker and edited within Gimp. I had to adjust curves and levelsquite a bit to bring out some of the detail and to reduce the red glow of the light pollution, but some of that red glow is still visible. I also did another stackof 4 images which I combined the two in Gimp to dim the blown outcores of both galaxies to bring out a little more detail, especiallywithin M82.
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