Image of galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major constellation. Both of galaxies are 12 000 000 ly from Earth. The separation distance between galaxies is 150 000 ly.
- M81 is a brighter galaxy in visual light from this pair. This galaxy has a little dark matter in comparison to other galaxies.
- M82 is the brightest galaxy in infrared light on our sky. This galaxy is very active, there are many stars creation regions and also two strong sources of x-ray inside probably they are two massive black holes.
The photo also includes smaller and more distant galaxies from the NGC and PGC catalogs.
Objects from the NGC catalog:
- NGC2959 - a spiral galaxy discovered by John Herschel on 28.10.1831. The object is ~218 million light years away. According to Simbad data, it is a LINER galaxy, the emission spectrum of its core is characterized by broad lines of weakly ionized atoms.
- NGC2961 - a spiral galaxy neighboring NGC2959 (the smaller one in the photo).
- NGC2976 - a spiral/dwarf galaxy discovered by William Herschel on 8.11.1801. The object is ~10 million light years away. The galaxy has very weak spiral arms, as a result of interaction with M81 it lost some of its gas. The galaxy's star formation region extends about 5k light years from the galaxy's core. The galaxy is close enough to observe individual stars with the HST and JWST telescopes.
- NGC3077 - an elliptical galaxy discovered by William Herschel on November 8, 1801. The object is ~12.4 million light years away. Due to interactions with M82, the galaxy is undergoing intense star formation processes.
Selected brightest objects from the PGC catalog in the photo:
- PGC28018
- PGC28225
- PGC28563
- PGC28802
- PGC29079
- PGC29284
The images were assembled in two SHO palettes where the R channels are overlaid with the SII signal, the G channel is overlaid with the Ha signal and the B channel is overlaid with the OIII signal, and in the HSO palette where the R to Ha and G to SII signals are swapped. The images in both palettes were processed independently. The last photo contains a composite image from multiple exposures for individual SII, Ha and OIII filters without additional processing (raw stack).
Object: M81 / M82 / NGC2959 / NGC2961 / NGC2976 / NGC3077 / PGC28018 / PGC28225 / PGC28563 / PGC28802 / PGC29079 / PGC29284
Palette: SHO / HSO
Session: 27,28,30,31.12.2024 ; 01,02.01.2025
Constellation: Ursa Major
Telescope: Tele Vue NP127is
Mount: iOptron CEM60-EC
Camera: QHY600M (gain: 56 / mode: high gain / offset: 40 / temperature: -15C)
Corrector: Tele Vue LCL-1069
Filter / Exposition time: 16h 30min
-> Chroma H-Alpha 3,0nm - 53x600s (8h 50min)
-> Chroma SII 3,0nm - 27x600s (4h 30min)
-> Chroma OIII 3,0nm - 19x600s (3h 10min)
Image processing: PixInsight
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