• Messier 81 and Messier 82 in Ursa Major
    • M81 and M82
    M81 and M82 annotated
  • M81 (NGC 3031) is Bode's Nebula, M82 (NGC 3034) is the Cigar Galaxy, and
  • UGC 5336, a very faint irregular galaxy, is (barely) visible above M81.
  • Hover over the picture for an annotated version
  • Date:  29 March 2022
  • FOV:  Cropped to 68' × 45'; M81's long axis is about 27'
  • Telescope:  Stellarvue SVX102T + SFFX-1 flattener (714mm, f/7)
  • Guiding:  ZWO ASI120MM mini mono guide camera,
  • Stellarvue F050G 50mm guide scope
  • Computer:  ASIair pro Raspberry Pi
  • Mount:  iOptron CEM40
  • Camera:  ZWO ASI071MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS with gain 90
  • Filter:  Baader Light Pollution Moonglow filter with IR cut
  • Stacking:  Fifty 180 second frames using Deep Sky Stacker
  • Total Time:  2 hours 30 minutes
  • Processing:  Pixinsight – SPPC, DBE, SPCC, BlurXT, NoiseXT, DynCrop → Linear
  • MStr, GHS, HST, PMath MStr + GHS + HST → Stars, Sat,
  • StarXT, MStr, GHS, HST, PMath MStr + GHS + HST → Starless,
  • HDR464PhLm, Sat, PMath ~(~Stars*~Starless) → Blend, scale
  • Location:  Darling Hill Observatory in Vesper, NY