Messier 81 (M81) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million Lj. away from earth. Messier 82 (M82) – also known as Cigar Galaxy – is a starburst galaxy which is interestingly also about 12 million ly. away from us. Both objects are located in constellation Ursa Major.
For this picture 11 light frames (600s exposure time each) were averaged. This is twice as much as the typical frame count I usually have. Therefore, there is almost no visible noise in the the final picture.
The full size image can be found here.
Clear skies!
 | Date | 2015/02/18 |
 | Location | Böblingen / Germany |
 | Object | Bode's Galaxy (M81) & Cigar Galaxy (M82) |
 | Camera | Atik383L+ |
 | Guiding | yes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG |
 | Telescope | 8" GSO Newtonian |
 | Barlow lens | none |
 | Mount | EQ6Syntrek |
 | Cooling | -15°C |
 | Luminance | 11x, 600s, bin: 1x1 |
 | Red | 9x, 150s, bin: 2x2 |
 | Green | 9x, 150s, bin: 2x2 |
 | Blue | 9x, 150s, bin: 2x2 |
 | Dark | 10x |
 | Flat | 10x |
 | Total exposure | ~2h57min. |