M81 and M82

[maxchess]

M81 Bodes Galaxy and M82 Cigar galaxy.  Taken last night 23rd April despite a bright moon. 120 x 60 sec lights, 40 darks. No bias or flats as I'm having a bit of problem with my flats at present, they seem to make things worse not better. Taken with Canon 1100d unmodified with a Celestron C8 on an HEQ5-pro. Processed in DSS and Star Wars (Sorry Star Tools).

The Star Wars connection?, well you can see that M82 is better illuminated while M81 is on the Dark side.  It was reported that a supernova was observed in Bode’s Galaxy in 1993, however it is much more likely that M81 was  the location of  Alderaan. destroyed by the Death star in the first 1977 movie and we viewed this event 12 ish million years later given that  M81 is 11.8 million light years from Earth. If this sounds a bit far fetched remember that the story was set "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" so it sort of fits. If you don't believe this then all I can say is that "I find you lack of faith disturbing"