M81, M82 & NGC 3077

[JamesF]

Yes I'm glad you noticed them.  I cannot find out anything about them in Sky Safari or any of my star charts - does anyone have any ideas?

There are a bundle of very faint galaxies in that general area, but I'm not certain which is which.  You could try pushing the image through http://nova.astrometry.net/ perhaps?

James

[gnomus]

Thanks for the link. Never seen that site before. I'll report back if I find out anything.

[JamesF]

It's a very handy site for imagers

James

[Xplode]

I don't think astrometry will find those faint galaxies

Look over M82 and a little to the left, there's 2 kinda bright stars pretty close to eachother. There is a large galaxy cluster there, but you really need a larger scope to make them stand out more.

Maybe you can use this image to pick them out better?

M81-M82 annotated

[wookie1965]

Great image I have recently learned to find M81 and M82 but not seen NGC 3077 will look for that next time.

[gnomus]

There are a bundle of very faint galaxies in that general area, but I'm not certain which is which.  You could try pushing the image through http://nova.astrometry.net/ perhaps?

James

I believe that the little smudge directly under M81 is Holmberg IX a dwarf irregular satellite of M81. I don't know about the other one. Interstellarum had Holmberg marked on it.