Instrument

Celestron C11 @  ~f/10.48 (2930 mm fl) 1.265 arcsec / pixel. 

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

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

Acquisition Data

3/4/2008 to 3/28/2008  Chino Valley... with CCDAutoPilot3

Exposure

LumHa (HaR)GB combine.  50% of H-Alpha data was combined with the Lum and Red channels, using the Photoshop lighten option.

Ha      600 min.  (20 x 30 min bin 2x2)
Lum    190 min.  (19 x 10 min bin 2x2)
RGB    240 min.  (  8 x 10 min bin 3x3) each

Software

CCDSoft, Sigma-Clip, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin, Paint Shop Pro, and Noel Carboni's actions

Comment

North is to the top.
M82, the Cigar Galaxy, was stirred up by a recent pass near the large spiral galaxy M81. However, this doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas. Recent evidence indicates that this gas is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars. This image highlights a specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas. The filaments extend for over 10,000 light years. The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light, and can be seen in visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of Ursa Major.

Source: NASA APOD