This is the time of year that amateur astronomers call “galaxy season.” When we are looking out at the arms of the Milky Way or toward its galactic core, we see lots of nebulae, stellar nurseries, and stellar clusters. At this time of year, the sky shows us a thin veneer of our own galaxy, and more of what we might call “deep space.” I think of deep space as “where the wild things are” – other galaxies, island universes, some like our own and others much different.
Last night, I abandoned the Triad Quad filter that is optimized for making images of star-forming regions and planetary nebulae and substituted a simple Light Pollution Filter (LPF). As nice as an LPF is, it is no substitute for a trip to a dark site – maybe rural Texas or high up in the plateaus or mountains of New Mexico, away from the lights. My quarries last night were the Ursa Major galaxy group M81 and M82, and their partners (only a few of which are bright enough for me to capture), M109 of the M109 galaxy group. and M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy.
My light pollution filter eliminates some of the nasty noise that comes from Mercury and Sodium streetlights, but it doesn’t do squat to suppress the illumination of LED light fixtures. So, what I can record of these wonders from the near center of Austin is modest, at best. In this post, I offer an image of the M81-M82 Ursa Major Galaxy group. The image also shows a couple of the smaller galaxies in this group. M81, Bode’s Galaxy, is the grand design spiral galaxy just right of center. M82, the Cigar Galaxy is just left of center. The fainter galaxies are in the upper and lower right-hand zones of the frame.
This image is the composite of 60, 60-second exposures at ISO1600 taken through the 130SV sextuplet astrograph.
There are many beautiful images of both galaxies online – just enter M81 and M82 into your favorite search engine and enjoy a mental trip to another island universe.
Mysterious and awesome!
Yep. I feel that way about these things when I capture their likenesses.