M82, is an unusual starburst galaxy in Ursa Major. A member of the M81 group of galaxies, M82 is gravitaionally energized by its recent close encounter with M81.

Telescopically, M82 is an easy, bright target with an apparent size of 11' x 4'. Its long, thin shape earns it the nickname of the Cigar Galaxy.

In this image, North is up. This image is cropped to 42% of the original full frame.

Exposure Details
Lens	Celestron C-8 SCT with Celestron focal reducer and extension
Focal Length	1160mm
Focal Ratio	f/5.8
Mount	Schaefer GEM - 7 1/2
Guiding	80mm f/11 guidescope with PHD Guiding
Camera	Canon 450D - Gary Honis modified
Exposure	101 subexposures of 90 seconds at ISO 800 - about 2 1/2 hours total
Calibration	30 darks, 30 flats, 30 bias
Date	March 2, 2012
Temperature	40F
SQM Reading	18.3 (70% Moon - about Bortle 7)
Seeing	4 of 5
Location	Pine Mountain Club, California
Software Used	Images Plus 4.5 for camera control, calibration, stacking, digital development, noise reduction, smoothing, and Lucy-Richardson deconvolution. Photoshop CS5 used for levels and curves, saturation adjustments, star shrinking, noise reduction, high pass filter, and color correction. Carboni Actions for additional saturation adjustments, noise reduction and smoothing. Registar for image alignment.
Notes	I employed some new processing techniques with this image which allowed me to bring out some nice fine details. This photo was taken when the Moon was about 70% of full. As a result, it doesn't capture the faintest parts of the galaxy. Nonetheless, the image shows the galaxy fairly well.