« Back to Gallery
M81 by Rod Pommier
Submitted by Chelsea Chin
M81: Bode’s Galaxy
Messier 81, also known as Bode’s Galaxy, is a class Sb spiral galaxy lying
11.7 million light-years from Earth. Despite its classic spiral appearance, it contains hints of a “recent” (in cosmological terms) disruptive interaction with another galaxy: namely, the three parallel, nearly straight-line dust lanes visible just to the left of the nucleus. The responsible interaction likely occurred with neighboring galaxy Messier 82, the Cigar Galaxy, which came out of the interaction far more disrupted than Messier 81. The irregular dwarf satellite galaxy Holmberg IX is visible to the lower right of Messier 81. It is analogous to one of our Magellanic clouds.
Telescope/mount: CDK17 on L-500 series mount
Location: Pommier Observatory, Portland, OR, USA
Camera: SBIG STL 11000M with Baader Planetarium filters.
Exposures: Ha:L:R:G:B = 135:400:90:90:85 minutes = 13 hours, 20 minutes total exposure. Completely unguided.
Rod Pommier – Pommier Observatory | Portland, Oregon USA