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| Galaxy M81 in Ursa Major | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Galaxy M81, at a distance of 12 million light-years (4-fold further than the Pinwheel Galaxy and Andromeda Galaxy), is one of the brightest galaxies in our skies. From a dark sky site, a few astronomers with exceptional vision can spot its faint glow with the naked eye. The spiral shape can be revealed with small telescopes. The prior image on my website shows its companion galaxy M82 which was disrupted by a close encounter with M81 tens of millions of years ago. M81 was originally discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 31, 1774, who found it, together with its neighbor M82. To this day, M81 carries the name "Bode's Nebula." Charles Messier added them to his catalog in 1781. This image was obtained with Luminance exposure of 145 minutes and R-G-B exposures of 30-30-50 minutes, for a total exposure time of 4 hours 15 minutes. I used an ST10XME camera through a TEC 140mm refractor telescope. |
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| This music was selected because M81 has the mass of our galaxy, but only 1/3 its size, making its density comparitively "thicker". | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Music: Thick as a Brick, by Jethro Tull | ||||||||||||||||||||