M81 - Bode's Galaxy & M82 - Cigar Galaxy

  
 
 
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  • RA: 09:55.6 & 09:55.8
  • Dec: +69.04 & +69:41
  • Magnitude: 6.9 & 8.4
  • Distance: 12,000,000 ly
  • Size:  21 x 10 & 9 x 4 arc min
  • Constellation:  Ursa Major
  • Scope: Orion ED80
  • Autoguider:  ST-4 in faint mode
  • Sky conditions:  Seeing and Transparency above average
  • Camera: Hutech modified Canon 300D, ISO 800
  • Exposure:  8 x 8 minutes ISO800
  • Date:  May 29 , 2008
Comments:  Temperature was in the lower 40s.  The night started out great but clouds rolled in about 2:30 am.  M82 forms a  physical pair with its neighbor M81 and is a member of the nearby group called the M81 group.  It is the prototype of a disk irregular galaxy.  Its core seems to have suffered dramatically from a semi-recent close encounter with M81, being in a heavy starburst and displaying conspicuous dark lanes.  This turbulent explosive gas flow is also a strong source of radio noise. A few tens of million years ago a close encounter occurred between the galaxies M81 and M82.  During this event, the larger and more massive M81 has dramatically deformed M82 by gravitational interaction.  The galaxies are still close together, their centers separated by a linear distance of only about 150,000 light years.