M82 – A Deep Integration of the Cigar Galaxy

Image Title: Starbust galaxy M82

Copyright: Riccardo Pacini Astrophotography

Date image was taken: January 28, 2025

Location: Williamsburg Virginia

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Image Description and Details:

Messier 82
101 hours of exposure

Also known as the Cigar Galaxy, m82 is a starburst galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major, roughly 12 million light-years away. It's the second-largest member of the M81 Group of galaxies, along with its neighbor M81. M82 is famous for its intense star formation, creating new stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way.
The galaxy's core is undergoing a massive burst of star formation, stirring up thousands of stars and the surrounding gas and dust.

This project was realized using 2 scopes
A celestron edgehd800 at2000mm f10 paired with a asi294mm about 30h collected 2 years ago
And this year 82h were collected using a shaprstar SCA260 at 1300mm f5
Paired with an Asi2600mm
Only RGB had Ha data were acquired
Lumiannce layer was not possible due to the nounerous power line overhead that tends to be very prominent in luminance filter making it impossible to use.
Their appearance seems to be almost absent in narrowband and very little showing in RGB broadband filter.

The best 101h out of 112h were used for the integration

Data acquired using NINA
processed in PIXINSIGHT and Photoshop

Data collected from backyard in bortle 5 location
In WILLIAMSBURG VA

Equipment Details: Askar sca260 1300mm f5
Skywatcher cq350 pro
Zwo Asi2600mm
Antlia RGB v-pro series

Name: Riccardo Pacini

Website or Facebook Profile: http://Facebook.com/riccardopaciniastro