M82's shape had been severely distorted by a past encounter with M81, which generated an accelerated birth of new stars. Excited gas jets out with high speed from the center of M82, glowing in the red light of ionized hydrogen.
Canon EOS 20D Modified Canon 20D mounted on a Vixen R200SSDG(8"/F4)+ Televue Paracorr. 36x300sec/ISO800 with IDAS-LPS filter. Calibration and stacking, averaging, color balancing, sharpening in Images Plus and Photoshop CS2.
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