Having just gotten into astrophotography, I am beyond pleased to show the results of my latest imaging session of M81 and M82. These two galaxies have been a favorite of mine since I first observed them roughly 10 years ago. At a distance from Earth of 11.8 million light years, the beautiful spiral arms of M81 span about 90,000 light years with the galaxy containing roughly 250 billion stars. But, my favorite out of these two is M82, the Cigar Galaxy. Nearly 18 million light years away, it’s complex core reveals sharp divides and interesting colors that are the result of rapid star formation. Galaxies such as these truly reveal the glory of God and his hand in creating the universe.
For more technical details on how these pictures were captured, stacked and processed, please check out the Astrophotography page.
Late Night Astronomy 