Observation by Martina McGovern: Messier 81

Uploaded by

Paul Downing

Observer

Martina McGovern

Observed

2020 Nov 22 - 23:00

Uploaded

2020 Nov 25 - 17:34

Objects

M81

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Constellation

Ursa Major

Field centre

RA: 09^h55^m
Dec: +69°04'
Position angle: +78°15'

Field size

0°30' × 0°20'

Equipment

Celestron Edge HD 8” SCT, SkyWatcher HEQ5 PRO
ZWO ASI294MC Pro, main camera
ZWO ASIAir Pro, ZWO EAF (Electronic Automatic Focuser) & Dual-Speed 2-inch Crayford Focuser for SCT’s
ZWO 60mm Guide scope, ZWO ASI120MM mini, Guide camera
Optolong L-Pro Broadband filter, Optolong L-eXtreme dual band filter (Ha & OIII)

Exposure

Approx 5hrs of L-pro data & 40mins L-eXtreme data; 180s

Location

Cambridge, UK

Target name

Messier 81

Title

Messier 81

About this image

Martina comments that "I haven’t had a clear night in so so long – until last Sunday - So, I stayed up right through until 6am the next day!!! I have been wanting to try to capture this one for a while now."

M81 (Bodes Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 Million light years away, with a diameter of 90,000 light years, in the constellation of Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size, and active Galactic nucleus (which harbours a supermassive black hole), Messier 81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers. Extract from Wikipedia.

Files associated with this observation

M81_mcgovern_221120.jpg (261.7 kB)

Like this image

Dr Paul Leyland, David Arditti, Ian Hynes, Simon Paul Davis

Comments

Dr Paul Leyland, 2020 Dec 11 - 16:38 UTC

Original comment disappeared :-(

Trying to recreate it. Something along the lines of a good number of the globular clusters appear in your image. They are some of the faint orangish "stars" around the galaxy, though some will be red dwarfs in our galaxy. The only way to be sure is to dig up a catalogue.

Martina McGovern

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