My Notes: These notes are identical to M82 since they are generally captured in the same field of view. M81 and M82 are neighbors. Both are spiral galaxies. M81 is face on from our view and M82, called the cigar galaxy, is a side view. M81 is about 3 times as large as M82. They are both about 11.8 million light years away and had a "recent" encounter that caused M82 to turn into a starburst galaxy which means it is producing stars up to 33x more quickly than normal galaxies.

Photographed on March 5th 2021. I took this at the Prairie Astronomy Club’s Star Party Location located near Cortland, NE. Temp was 35℉ captured from 20:18 to 22:13. I used the exact same setup as M42, Fujifilm XT4, 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 lens with 1.4x teleconverter, same flimsy tripod and ball head, dew shield, etc. However, perhaps due to skill or more patience, I got my focus extremely accurate and had very little shake in the setup. I was able to stack 40 images with a rating of .85 or higher to form this image. That’s the most I’ve ever been able to stack and the highest minimum rating I’ve used. I had 4 that were perfect 1.00 rated images.

Bode Notes: (No. 18, Dec. 31st, 1774) ‘A nebulous patch, very pale; elongated.’

Messier Notes: (Feb. 9th, 1781) ‘Nebula without star, near the preceding (M81) both appearing in the same field of the telescope. This one is less distinct than the preceding; the light is faint and elongated with a telescopic star at its extremity. Seen at Berlin by M. Bode on Dec. 31st 1774 and by M. Méchain in Aug. 1779.’