Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82)
is the prototype nearby starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years
away in the constellation Ursa Major. The starburst galaxy is five times
as bright as the whole Milky Way and one hundred times as bright
as our galaxy's center.

In 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope revealed 197 young massive
clusters in the starburst core. The average mass of these
clusters is around 2×105 M, hence the starburst core is a
very energetic and high-density environment. Throughout the
galaxy's center, young stars are being born 10 times faster
than they are inside our entire Milky Way Galaxy. (Narrative credit: Wikipedia)


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My good friend, John Struckmeyer, was kind enough to take the
hydrogen alpha (Ha) data thru his RCOS 12.5 Ritchey Chretien (RC) from his
home in Irving, Texas.
Without his excellent Ha data this image would not have shown the beautiful
red in the galaxy center and radiating above and below.

Dates:
February, March, April and May, 2012

Locations:
Ft. Griffin State Historic Site, Texas - LRGB Data

Irving, Texas - Ha Data

Telescopes:
Celestron C11Edge @ f/10 2800mm FL - LRGB

RCOS 12.5 RC @ f/9 2800mm FL - Ha

Mounts:
Astro-Physics Mach1 guided by the ST-10XE using the Remote Guide Head
thru a Hutech Off Axis Guider - LRGB

Astro-Physics 1200 guided by ST-10XME using the Remote Guide Head
Thru Hutech Off Axis Guider - Ha

Cameras:
SBIG ST-10XE at prime focus with CFW8 and
Astronomik LRGB filters - C11 EdgeHD

SBIG ST-10XME at prime focus
with CFW8 with Ha filter - RCOS 12.5 RC

Image Scale:
.5 arcsecs/pxl

Camera Control:
Maxim DL 5.15

Exposures:
Luminance - 320 mins; 1x1
Red - 85 mins; 2x2
Green - 85 mins; 2x2
Blue - 95 mins; 2x2
Ha - 300 mins; 1x1

Exposure time:
14 hrs 45 mins
Processing:
CCDStack; Photoshop CS2