105 hours on M81, M82 and the elusive IFN

by Drew Evans

Objects in field: Bode's Galaxy, Cigar Galaxy, M 81, M 82, NGC 2959, NGC 2961, NGC 2976, NGC 3027, NGC 3031, NGC 3034, NGC 3065, NGC 3066, NGC 3077, 24 d UMa, 24 UMa), The star Althiba VII (d UMa

Equipment: William Optics Redcat 71, ZWO ASI6200MM Pro

Integration: 99h 45m

105 hours on M81, M82 and the elusive IFN This is my longest project so far in 20 years of astrophotography, totaling 105 hours over a 3 months of imaging. I knew from the onset that this amount of total acquisition time had to be invested if I want to record that very faint signal of IFN (Integrated Flux Nebula) that I was after. Galaxies Messier 81 and Messier 82 can be seen along with the…