Optics and mount

Takahashi FSQ f/3.6 on Takahashi Em-200.

CCD camera

Canon 350D Baader mod. Guided with MiniBorg 60ED and DSI pro II.

Filters

None

Exposures

4 x 600 sec. ISO 400

Software

DSS ( Flats,darks,bias, 2x drizzle), Photoshop CS2 (levels,curves).

Date and Location

30.12.2007 / 59 11 47.83 N. - 10 22 29.33 E.

Object information

The M81 group is a famous group of galaxies mainly because it contains the famous M81/M82 pair of galaxies discovered in 1784. M81 galaxy is the dominant galaxy in the group and it is similar in size to the Milky Way. This galaxy is one of the brightest galaxies in the sky, and although it is too faint to see with the naked eye, it is an easy galaxy to find with binoculars if you know where to look.

M82 (left) is a remarkable galaxy of peculiar type. It is usually classified as irregular, though probably a distorted disk galaxy, and famous for its heavy star-forming activity, thus a prototype member of the class of starbursting galaxies. 

The bright dwarf galaxies in the M81 group is NGC 2976 (upper right corner) is a small spiral galaxy approximately two million light years behind M81. NGC 3077 (lower middle) is much closer to M81 - they are separated by about 140 thousand light years. However the whole field is full of small galaxys if you look closer at the bigger picture.

Previous Pictures

25.01.2006

Comments

Cloudy night as usual and the imaging had to be aborted after only 4 exposures.