M81 and M82 - Bode's Galaxy and The Cigar Galaxy - wide field (First photo)

M81 and M82, also known as Bode's Galaxy and The Cigar Galaxy are located together with the spherical galaxy
known as NGC 3077 (seen at top left of this image).
The group of galaxies is located in the constellation Ursa Major at a distance of about 12 Million light-years from Earth.
M81, the largest galaxy in the group, is a type Sb spiral galaxy.
To its right in the image is the smaller edge-on spiral galaxy M82 with its very active galactic nucleus.
The nucleus contains a supermassive black hole, which can be seen spewing out copious amounts of ionized Hydrogen gas
(seen here in red) at speeds approaching the speed of light from the poles aligned along the axis of its rotation.
Most of the nebulosity visible in the image is the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) that is located several light-years
above and below the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.
However, some of the nebulosity visible in the image is composed of gas, dust, stars and a few globular star clusters that were torn apart and strewn about into intergalactic space during recent close encounters between the member galaxies.

Image acquisition and processing information:

Date: April 19th and 20th, 2023
Telescope 1: Celestron Edge HD 14" telescope using a Hyperstar v4 lens
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-1200 GTO CP3
Camera: ZWO ASI-2400MC Pro one-shot-color camera (gain 158)
Guiding: Telescope: AstroTech AT72ED, Camera: ASI-120 MM
Exposures: 244 one-minute exposures using a IR/UV cut filter
Image acquisition and guiding: ASIAIR Plus

Telescope 2: Celestron C11 telescope using a Hyperstar v4 lens
Mount: Celestron CGE Pro
Camera: ZWO ASI-6200MM Pro monochrome camera
Guiding: Telescope: Orion 60mm with helical focuser, Camera: ASI-120 MM
Exposures: 142 one-minute exposures using a IR/UV cut filter and
20 two-minute exposures using a Ha filter
Image acquisition and guiding: ASIAIR Plus

M81 - Bode's Galaxy - higher resolution (Second photo)

M81, also known as Bode's Galaxy, is a type Sb spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Ursa Major.
M81 is a beautiful example of what is known as a "grand design" spiral galaxy.
It's prominent spiral structure and dense star forming regions is a result of a strong gravitational influence with its neighboring galaxy, M82.
M81 is located approximately 12 million light-years from earth.

Image acquisition and processing information:

Date: February 7th and 8th, 2022
"telescope - Focal Ratio: F11
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-1200 GTO CP3
Camera: ZWO ASI-6200 MM Pro monochrome camera equipped with a ZWO 7-Position Electronic
Filter Wheel with 2-Inch Filters
Image acquisition software: Sequence Generator Pro v. 3.0.3.169
Exposures: 49 five-minute exposures binned 3x3 using a IR/UV cut filter for luminance, 18 five-minute exposures each binned 3x3 using red, green and blue filters
Guiding: Guided through the imagaing scope using ONAG XM on-axis guider using a ZWO ASI-183 MM Pro guiding camera also binned 3x3
Image processing Software: PixInsight v. 1.8.8.9