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This image was created by median combining 7 x 90 second unfiltered images taken with a Takahashi Epsilon 250 with SBIG ST-8XE CCD. The image has been cut down to be 20 x 20 arc minutes in size.
Messier 81 (NGC 3031) in Ursa Major is one of the nearest galaxies beyond the Local Group. The bright nucleus, well defined spiral arms and dark dust lanes - with one of these running straight through the disk - make this spiral galaxy an attractive target. Studies of the variable stars in M81 have yielded a distance of 11.8 million light-years.
Return to Short Projects and Targets of Opportunity
In collaboration with the Remote Astronomical Society Observatory
Martin Nicholson - Daventry, United Kingdom.
This page was last updated on January 14th 2008.