M81 & M82 – Bode's and Cigar Galaxies

48.5 hours of integration, revealing two of the night sky's most iconic galaxies in a single frame.

Distance From Earth — ~12 Million Light Years
Constellation — Ursa Major
Total Exposure Time — 48.5 Hours

M81 and M82 are a interacting galaxy pair in Ursa Major, bound together by gravity and close enough in our sky to capture in a single field of view. M81, Bode's Galaxy, is a grand design spiral — its sweeping arms and warm golden core visible in striking detail. M82, the Cigar Galaxy, tells a different story: a starburst galaxy in the midst of intense star formation triggered by gravitational interaction with M81, with red hydrogen filaments erupting outward from its core like a slow-motion explosion frozen in time. The two are separated by only about 150,000 light years in real space and have been shaping each other for hundreds of millions of years.

Two galaxies, two completely different personalities — in the same frame, 12 million light years away. That never gets old.