Instrument

Celestron C11 @  ~f/10.48 (2930 mm fl) 1.26 arcsec / pixel.  Shown resampled to 3 arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filer wheel, AstroDon Filters

Acquisition Data

2/10/2008 & 3/4/2008  Chino Valley... with CCDAutoPilot3

Exposure

Lum    270 min.  (27 x 10 bin 2x2)

RGB    180 min.  (6 x 10 bin 3x3) each

Software

CCDSoft, Sigma-Clip, Photoshop CS3 w/ the Fits Liberator plugin, and Noel Carboni's actions

Comment

North is to the top.
Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. M81 is one of the most striking examples of a grand design spiral galaxy. Hinting at a disorderly past, a remarkable dust lane runs straight through the disk, above and right of the galactic center, contrary to M81's other prominent spiral features. The errant dust lane may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and its smaller companion galaxy, M82.

The loose collection of stars, to the left, is actually a dwarf irregular galaxy, called Holmberg IX. Holmberg IX is of the so-called Magellanic type of galaxy, as its size and irregularity in structure are similar to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a neighbor to our own Milky Way. Holmberg IX was first discovered by astronomer Sidney van den Bergh in 1959. It is suspected that the dwarf galaxy was created as a result of a galactic interaction between M81 and neighboring galaxy M82.

Instrument

Celestron C11 @ F/6.1 (1708 mm)  1.085 arcsec / pixel

Mount

Losmandy G11

Camera

SBIG ST-7 with CFW-8A color wheel

Acquisition Date

5/1/04 to 5/14/04  Near downtown Seattle

Exposure

Lum     240 min. (16 x 15 min)  
Red       60 min (4 x 15 min)
Green    60 min (4 x 15 min)
Blue     110 min (5 x 22 min)

Software

CCDSoft, CCDOPS, Sigma Clip (pre beta 11), PhotoShop CS and Paint Shop Pro.

Comment

North is to the left.  I really need a larger field of view. This only shows a bit more than the galaxy core.