Galaxy M81 by Daniel Meek
Galaxy M81 (Daniel Meek)

Galaxy M81 by Daniel Meek

Photo of the Week for February 6, 2015 M81 is a wonderfully symmetrical spiral situated in Ursa Major, […]

Photo of the Week for February 6, 2015

M81 is a wonderfully symmetrical spiral situated in Ursa Major, and is half of the well known M81/M82 galaxy pair. Both galaxies lie at a distance of roughly 11 million light years. In his Scoping the Sky column in the March/April 2015 issue of SkyNews (page 22), Ken Hewitt-White refers to the duo as the Beauty and the Beast. For obvious reasons, M81 is the Beauty.

Galaxy M81 by Daniel Meek
Galaxy M81 (Daniel Meek)

Calgary, Alberta, imager Daniel Meek captured this galactic portrait with a 5-inch telescope in January, 2015. He used a Tele Vue NP127is f/5.2 apochromatic refractor and a QSI 583wsg CCD camera for this 330 minute HaRGB image. More of Daniel’s work can be seen here.