M81 - Bode's Galaxy

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Description

M81 was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774 and is named "Bode's Galaxy" in his honor. Bode's Galaxy lies about 12 Million light years away in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major and contains approximately 250 billion stars making it slight smaller than our own Milky Way galaxy. M81 is one of the sky's finest example of a grand design spiral galaxy with nearly perfect spiral arms and at magnitude 7.9 is one of the brightest galaxies visible from Earth.

Image Details

Target:	M81 (NGC 3031)
Coordinates (Center - J2000):	RA 09h 55m 41s ; Dec +69d 04m 06s
Date:	19 December 2006
Constellation:	Ursa Major
Imaging Location:	Indialantic, Florida
Camera:	SBIG ST-8XME & CFW-10 Color Filter Wheel
Filters:	Astrodon Series E Tru-Balance LRGB
Telescope:	Celestron 8" SCT f/10 (FL = 2100mm) Carbon Fiber Tube
Mount:	Takahashi EM-200 Temma II GEM (12 VDC)
Image Scale:	0.87 arcseconds per pixel
CCD Temperature:	-10 C
Luminance Exposures:	14 @ 450 sec. each (105 minutes total)
Mount Control Software:	The Sky 6.0.0.52
Camera Control Software:	CCDSoft 5.00.182
Focus Control Software:	FocusMax 3.3.15
Executive Control Software:	CCD Commander 1.4.0
Collimation and Image Evaluation Software:	CCDInspector
Calibration and Stacking Software:	CCDStack
Color Combining and Final Processing Software:	Photoshop CS

Additional Details

Description of M81 (By Rob Gendler):

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M81text.html