Messier 81, Bode’s Galaxy

Messier 81, Bode’s Galaxy, is one of the brightest galaxies in our sky and is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy. Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode’s galaxy for its 18th century discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. This image reveals M81’s bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, pink starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes.  Some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (right of center), which is not normally found in spiral galaxies. The errant dust lanes may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and its smaller companion galaxy, M82. Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 has yielded one of the most accurate distance for an external galaxy — 11.8 million light-years. Above M 81 is a small irregular galaxy known as PGC 28757 which appears more like a star cluster.  This image was taken with the 20″ Planewave CDK20 telescope and the Finger Lakes Instruments PL16803 camera. The image was made from 180 subimages taken over 33 hours.