M81 And M82

[Davide Simonetti]

M81 or Bode's Galaxy on the left and M82 or Cigar Galaxy on the right. Two favourite targets that are fun to image. Every year I try to get more detail out of these galaxies and this is the most detail I've managed to squeeze out so far with more of the disk of M81 showing and hint of dust bands. There are 40 minutes of exposure here (I wanted more but cloud and guiding issues curtailed the number if images taken - still, I can always add to it. These two galaxies are both about 12 million light years away from Earth and can be found in the constellation of Ursa Major.

 5 x 8 minute exposures at 400 ISO

10 x dark frames

21 x bias/offset frames

Guided with PHD

Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop

Equipment:

Celestron NexStar 127 SLT

GoTo AltAz mount with homemade wedge

Orion 50mm Mini Guide Scope

ZWO ASI120 MC imaging and guiding camera

Canon 700D DSLR