M81 and M82 Galaxy Pictures by Dick Locke
All images on this web site Copyright © 2006-2008, Dick Locke.  All Rights Reserved.  Contact and Image Use Information 

M82 Close-up Picture

M82 is really cooking with activity due to it's recent close interaction with M81.  This March 2008 image is composed of 11 x 4 minute frames = 44 minutes exposure.

Spiral Galaxy M81, and "The Cigar Galaxy" M82

Re-Do March 2008.  Two galaxies in Ursa Major, roughly 11 million light years away from earth.   Canon EOS 20Da (unmodified), Takahashi TOA 130 (a 5" APO refractor) with the TAK flattener, guided with  SBIG STV, Astro-Physics AP 900GTO mount.    My current image processing workflow is here.

The unusual activity in M82 is due to interaction with the relatively close M81.  The galaxies had a close encounter about one hundred million years ago.  Just above M81 you can barely make out Holmberg IX, (AKA UGC 5336, AKA PGC 28757).  There's another faint smudge that's a galaxy in the upper left corner of the frame.

• Click here for a large image, with a mouse-over showing the galaxies labeled with their magnitudes. 

• Seds info on M82 here, and on M81 here.

		Dick Locke's Astronomy Image Index
Galaxy Home	Four Galaxies:  M81, M82, NGC 3077 (above), and NGC 2976 (Left) 22 minute exposure, Takahashi FS 102 telescope, Kodak LE400 film.  5/2004 in West Texas, Davis Mountains.	M109 plus many dim fuzzies
Astronomy Pictures: Dick Locke's Astrophoto Gateway page....	Images Home	Messier Pictures, Images by Dick Locke

Copyright © 1998-2008, Dick Locke.  All Rights Reserved.
Contact and Image Use Information