Widefield of Messier 81 & Messier 82

Messier 81, left of center, is one of the brightest galaxies in the night sky. It is located 11.6 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major and has an apparent magnitude of 6.9. (NASA Science)

Messier 82, right of center, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, is a starburst galaxy. It is 12 MLY distant. M82 experiences gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbor, M81, causing it to have an extraordinarily high rate of star formation — a starburst. (NASA)

Seen in the background extending out from M81 and M82 is Intergalactic Cirrus or dust clouds. Also, scattered throughout much of the image is interstellar (within our galaxy) dust clouds. They are most prominent around the chain of hot blue stars.

Image processed by Andrew F. Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: IC Astronomy Observatory, Spain

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4

Aperture: 106 mm (4.17 inches), f/3.6

Focal Length: 382 mm w/ .73 field flattener

Camera: FLI ProLine PL16803 CCD

Filters: LRGB

Total Exposure: 9 hours 45 minutes

Image Processing:

PixInsight 1.9.3 Lockhart (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (RC Astro);

Adobe Photoshop 25.12.4;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 15.0.1

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.