Galaxies
The Cigar Galaxy
The Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82), a starburst galaxy in Ursa Major 12 million light-years away, photographed by Pete Lawrence.
Target details
The Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82) is a starburst galaxy in Ursa Major, about 12 million light-years away. At 37,000 light-years across it's much smaller than the Milky Way, yet it's about five times brighter overall, and its centre is a hundred times brighter than ours. It was long thought to be an irregular galaxy, until near-infrared images in 2005 revealed two symmetrical spiral arms.
Capture details
Data captured over 7 nights between 24th December, 2019 & 18th January, 2020.
76x 2 minute exposures with Blue filter (Binned 2x2).
76x 2 minute exposures with Green filter (Binned 2x2).
74x 2 minute exposures with Red filter (Binned 2x2).
289x 3 minute exposures with Luminance filter.
48x 10 minute exposures with Hydrogen Alpha filter.
Total Exposure = 35.0 hours.
Equipment details
Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Atik 428EX Mono
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II
Processing details
This image was processed in Pixinsight & Lightroom.
Calibration and Stacking in Pixinsight using Batch PreProcessing
Dynamic Crop - To remove black edges & integration artifacts. (Each Channel)
Dynamic Background Extraction - To remove gradients. (Each Channel)
Linear Fit - To match brightness of RGB channels (RGB Channels Separately)
Channel Combination - To combine RGB channels.
Photometric Colour Calibration - To calibrate colours.
SCNR - To remove green cast.
Deconvolution - To bring out some fine detail & tighten stars, 75 iterations. (Luminance & Ha only)
Multiscale Linear Transform - Noise reduction. (Luminace & Ha only)
Histogram Transformation - To stretch the RGB & Lum. (Using statistics process to keep background levels evenly)
LRGB Combination - To blend my luminance image with my RGB image.
PixelMath - To add Ha channel to LRGB image, with mask in place to only expose Ha plumes.
TGVDenoise - To reduce noise in background, with rangemask in place.
Local Histogram Equalisation - To sharpen with mask in place to exclude stars & background.
UnsharpMask - To sharpen with mask in place to exclude stars & background.
Curves Transformation - To darken blacks slightly.
Curves Transformation - To boost saturation of Ha plumes.
Export as JPEG and import into Lightroom.
Increase Contrast (+15)
Increase Saturation (+15)
Export final JPEG for upload.
Quick facts
- What is The Cigar Galaxy?
- The Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82) is a starburst galaxy in Ursa Major, about 12 million light-years away. At 37,000 light-years across it's much smaller than the Milky Way, yet it's about five times brighter overall, and its centre is a hundred times brighter than ours.
- Where is it in the sky?
- In the constellation Ursa Major.
- What are its catalogue names?
- M82
- When was this photo taken?
- 18 January 2020
- How long was the total exposure?
- 35.0 hours
- What equipment was used?
- Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF, NEQ6 Pro, Atik 428EX Mono, Skywatcher ST-80, QHY5L-II
- Where was it taken from?
- Lisburn, Northern Ireland.