Kwychang
M81 Bode's galaxy
Referred to as Bode's Nebula, it is however, a spiral galaxy located close to the Big Dipper or Plough asterism in Ursa Major. It has a close companion galaxy M82 the Cigar galaxy, so close together, they are often imaged as a pair.
Lying about 12 million light years from Earth and about 90,000 light years across. Binoculars will pick up M81 as a faint fuzzy patch of light under reasonable sky conditions.
First discovered by a German astronomer by the name of Johann Elert Bode in 1774, hence Bode's Nebula. At the time no one had any clue it was a whole other galaxy.
Boring techie bit:
Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.
Darks, Flats & Bias.
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.
M81 Bode's galaxy
Referred to as Bode's Nebula, it is however, a spiral galaxy located close to the Big Dipper or Plough asterism in Ursa Major. It has a close companion galaxy M82 the Cigar galaxy, so close together, they are often imaged as a pair.
Lying about 12 million light years from Earth and about 90,000 light years across. Binoculars will pick up M81 as a faint fuzzy patch of light under reasonable sky conditions.
First discovered by a German astronomer by the name of Johann Elert Bode in 1774, hence Bode's Nebula. At the time no one had any clue it was a whole other galaxy.
Boring techie bit:
Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.
Darks, Flats & Bias.
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.