M81 & M82, plus some foreground dust

by Eduardo Barbosa

Objects in field: Bode's Galaxy, Cigar Galaxy, M 81, M 82, NGC 3031, NGC 3034, NGC 3077

Equipment: Sky-Watcher Esprit 100ED, QHYCCD QHY268 M

Integration: 42h 20m

M81 playing it cool, M82 blowing off steam. Between them - and us - sits the Integrated Flux Nebula: faint galactic cirrus within the Milky Way, often mistaken for background, but actually in the foreground, complicating things nicely. Mount issues meant throwing out about half the broadband frames and nearly two-thirds of the Ha. Eccentricity was a mess, so processing needed extra care (with a…