M81, M82 and Dust

I took advantage of a long series of clear moonless nights to image the area around M81 and M82 again.  Between us and these 2 galaxies lies a network of dusty regions that requires dark skies and long integration times to image.  

The galaxies M81 (Bode’s Galaxy) and M82 (the Cigar Galaxy) anchor one of the most dramatic regions of the northern sky, surrounded by a vast sea of faint, smoky interstellar dust known as Integrated Flux Nebula. M81’s graceful spiral arms contrast sharply with the violent starburst activity in M82, where powerful winds are blasting out streams of glowing hydrogen gas. The surrounding dust clouds are not part of the galaxies themselves but lie within our own Milky Way, illuminated only by the combined glow of billions of distant stars. Together, they reveal a rare glimpse of both galactic beauty and the delicate, ghostlike structure of our cosmic neighborhood.