©2008 Richard Murray
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Notes: After about four months off without processing any images (I was taking them, just not processing them) I'm back with an image of M82(on top) and M81 (below).
This was taken at my home observatory and is an LRsGB with a synthetic green channel and Ha blended into the red channel. The Ha (hydrogen alpha filter) helped to bring out some of the active star forming regions (the red areas) particularly in M82 which is being severely distorted due to the huge gravitational pull of it's companion galaxy.
These two galaxies will eventually merge which is what will also happen to our own Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.
Date: 4/2/08(Images taken on three separate nights concluding on 4/2/08)
Object: M81-M82 Companion Galaxies
Telescope: Megrez 80mm APO
Mount: LX90
Camera: Atik 16hr
Filters: Luminance, Red, Blue, Ha14nm, Ha6nm
Exposure: Luminance-115 min (5 min subs), Red and Blue-20 min (4 min subs bin2x2), Ha 6nm 45min total, Ha 14nm 50min total
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, Maxim DL
Location: Burke Ave. Observatory, Three Rivers, Michigan
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