M81 and M82 (George Chappel)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: Bode's Galaxy · Cigar Galaxy · M 81 · M 82 · NGC 2959 · NGC 2961 · NGC 2976 · NGC 3031 · NGC 3034 · NGC 3077

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M81 and M82

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M81 and M82

With the weather forecast showing two clear nights with a new Moon, I wanted to test the quality of data I could capture while shooting RGB from my light-polluted backyard located in the suburbs of San Antonio, TX. I decided to go for the popular duo of M81 and M82 even though my focal length was about half of what I needed to get a great image. As expected, I didn't get the level of detail needed to do justice to these two galaxies (wish I had captured some Ha data to add some pop), but I was happy with the overall quality of the data (gradients were easily manageable) and proved to myself that if I can get clear skies with a new Moon, I can confidently go after RGB targets from my backyard. But the next time I decide to go for M81 and M82, I will be sure to grab a scope with a lot more focal length.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7860040
PixInsight job	002H92LRB58YB81E4H869HWKQLAXV88G
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	09h54m38s.57
RA (top/left)	09h53m51s.85
RA (top/right)	10h12m19s.96
RA (bottom/right)	09h55m31s.10
RA (bottom/left)	09h37m32s.37

Dec (center)	+68°48′48″.2
Dec (top/left)	+67°12′17″.10
Dec (top/right)	+69°06′54″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+70°25′49″.2
Dec (bottom/left)	+68°24′10″.3

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M81 and M82

M81 and M82

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M81 and M82

M81 and M82

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Acquisition details

Description

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Sky plot

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