M82

M82 is one of the most irregular galaxies in our galactic neighborhood. Due to a recent interaction with M81, this galaxy has tremendous amounts of star formation taking place. The image shows reddened outflows of material that extend hundreds and thousands of light years away from core of the galaxy. Curiously, this galaxy is exceedingly bright in the visible wavelengths of light- but even brighter in emissions at the radio wavelengths! Please visit this widefield image of M82 and M81.
Click on image for larger version.

Equipment

20in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.4
Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

L R G B color production was used to create this image.

Luminance = 90 minutes + 8.25 hours of Ha for bottom image binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 20 minutes binned 2x2
  • First Light for the 20in RC!!!!!!(top image)
  • Bottom image totals over 10 hours of data!
  • Two iterations of L-R deconvolution (sharpening) algorithm using CCDsharp were applied to the luminance image.

  • Digital Development (DDP) via Maxim/DL was also used in order to display the the very dim and very bright details of the image simultaneously.

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    Minimum credit line: Joe Jordan/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF (top image)
    Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF (bottom image)

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    Updated: 01/30/2005