These two galaxies were numbered 81 and 82 by Messier in 1781, with the one on the left being M81. They are both about 11 million light years from us. M81 is about 70,000 light-years wide and M82 is about 16,000 light-years wide. They are in the constellation Ursa Major.

Dates taken: April 2 and April 9, 2005
Location: Denton, Texas
Telescope: Orion 80ED f/7.5 FL 600mm
Mount: Takahashi EM-10 Temma 2
Guiding: None
Camera: Canon 300D(unmodified) @ Prime Focus
Camera Control and Focusing: Images Plus (IP)
Exposures: Apr 2 - 5 at 4 mins and 11 at 3 mins; Apr 9 - 29 at 2 mins
Total exposure time: 1 hour and 51 mins @ ISO 800; all in Raw mode
Processing:
Converted Raws to 16 bit Tiff, Calibrated with Darks and Flats, Aligned and Average Comb in IP
Digital Development, Levels, Curves, Background Compensation, Cropped and Resized in IP
Gradient removal with Photoshop plug-in: GradientXterminator
Conditions:
April 2: A rare night of great seeing in North Texas with low humidity and clear skies giving
transparency of 8/10; seeing of 9/10; light polluted skies of Mag 4; ambient temp ~56* F

April 9: Another rare night of clear, low humidity skies but with some gusting winds giving
transparency of 8/10; seeing of 7/10; Mag 4 skies; ambient temp ~70* F