M 82 NGC 3034 Galaxy; 10/26/2008 3:39 AM. Latitude: 43° 31′ 21″ North Longitude: 122˚ 52’ 35” West 4658 ft. Snow Peak S/E of Cottage Grove. OR. Seeing: E Transparency: 7 Seeing: E. SQM: 21.94 Telescopes / Optics: TEC 140 f/7 980mm Mount : AstroPhysics 1200 GOTO Camera: SBIG ST10XME CFW8a; 90 Minutes ( L=45 min; RGB= 45 min.; FOV 106’ x 72’ Filters: Astrodon LRGB series E Information: Used CCDSoft, CCDStack, AIP (Richard Berry), Photoshop.
This Galaxy was believed to be an irregulars galaxy, but in 2005 two spiral arms were discovered. They were missed because of the core’s brightness and their blue color. Star bursts from M82 indicate a hotbed of super nova activity from young massive stars.
The Hubble Space Telescope (2005), revealed 197 massive clusters in it’s star-burst core. The clusters average 200,000 Solar Masses. M82 has an apparent size of 11.2′ x 4.3′ and lies 12.4 Mly away. In 2010 radio astronomers found a strange object that may be a micro quasar.
In perspective M81 lies approximately 130,000 light years away. Making for a nice view of two galaxies in most amateur telescopes. This Galaxy is also known as NGC 3034, 5322, Arp 337, Cigar Galaxy, PGC 28655 and 3C 231.