M81, also known as Bode's Galaxy, is an impressive spiral galaxy in Ursa Major and is the largest galaxy in the M81 group of galaxies. In a telescope, M81 is quite large with an apparent diameter of 27' x 14'. Morever, M81 is only 1/2 degree from its close neighbor, M82. The two galaxies are gravitationally interacting, and the dramatic distortions of M82 are proof positive that M81 is the winner in the collision.

In this image, North is up. This image is cropped to 62% of the original full frame.

Exposure Details
Lens	Celestron C-8 SCT with Lumicon telecompressor
Focal Length	1100mm
Focal Ratio	f/5.5
Mount	Schaefer GEM - 7 1/2
Guiding	Unguided
Camera	Canon 20Da
Exposure	250 subexposures of 45 seconds at ISO 1600 - a little over 3 hours total
Calibration	30 darks, 30 flats, 30 bias
Date	May 1, 2011
Temperature	45F
SQM Reading
Seeing	3 of 5
Location	Pine Mountain Club, California
Software Used	Images Plus 4.0 for camera control. calibration, stacking, digital development. and multiresolution smoothing. Photoshop CS5 used for levels and curves, saturation adjustments, star shrinking, noise reduction, high pass filter. Carboni Actions for additional saturation adjustments and noise reduction.
Notes	I'm much happier with this image than the prior one, although its not terribly sharp, and needs more exposure to bring out the faint galaxy Holmberg IX. Nevertheless, for an unguided exposure, it shows quite a bit of detail.