What's In The Sky - February 2021

Clear February nights present some great stargazing opportunities, as suggested here by Orion Telescopes and Binoculars. Be sure to bundle up and keep warm while you get outside for some stargazing fun!

M81 - The Cigar Galaxy and M82 - Bode's Galaxy in Ursa Major. Image processed by Insight Observatory Starbase subscriber, Daniel Nobre, from image data acquired on the 16" f/3.7 Dream astrograph reflector (ATEO-1).

Bright Galaxies

In late February, bright galaxies M81 and M82 will be about as high in the sky as they will get for North American stargazers. From a dark sky site, these galaxies are visible with a 50mm or larger binocular, but we suggest you use a large telescope to chase these galaxies down just off the leading edge of the Big Dipper asterism. Many observers consider M81 and M82 the best pairing of visual galaxies in the sky!

M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy (left) was processed by Utkarsh Mishra, and M45 was processed by Chris Lin, both imaged on ATEO-1 using Insight Observatory's online Personal Image Request (PIR) application.

Binocular Targets

Astronomy isn't always about how much gear you have! Grab some Astro binoculars and check out the night sky without a lot of equipment. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is high in the sky in the evening right now, with the Pleiades (M45) higher up. Both make great targets for almost any binocular!

The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter

On February 11th, there is a conjunction between Venus and Jupiter in the early morning just before sunrise. With a separation of 0.5 degrees, the pair will be close enough together to fit into the field of view of most telescopes with around 75x-100x magnification. Plus, with Saturn still nearby, it's a great morning for planetary viewing. Get up early, find a clear southeastern horizon, and see if you can get a good view before sunrise!

M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo (left) and M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici (right), both imaged on ATEO-1 by Charles Weaver using Insight Observatory's online Personal Image Request (PIR) application.

Midnight Spirals

Some galaxies for the night owls, the Sombrero Galaxy (M104) and the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), are some nice spiral galaxies that are both visible after midnight in February. The spiral arms of M51 can be glimpsed under dark skies with a 4.5" telescope, but will have more definition in larger telescopes. M104 is similar; it is visible in a 4" telescope, but to distinguish the central "bulge" and 8" or larger instrument is required.

All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights, where light pollution and bright moonlight do not overpower the stars.

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New Image Sets Available In Starbase!

New image sets are available for downloading from Insight Observatory's Starbase Image Set Repository! Over the course of the past six months, all three remote Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) have been busy gathering image data for Starbase as well as various educational projects.

Listed below are just a few image sets that are now available and acquired on Insight Observatory's ATEO remote telescopes...

NGC 1365 - The "Great Barred Spiral Galaxy" in the constellation Fornax. Imaged data acquired on ATEO-3 by Franck Jobard and processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

ATEO-1 - 16" f/3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph reflector:

• M101 - Luminance (2020): Pinwheel Galaxy - 5 hours 
• M101 - Red, Green, Blue (2020): Pinwheel Galaxy - 7 Hours 10 Minutes

• M81-M82 - Luminance (2020): Bode's and Cigar Galaxies - 6 Hours 50 Minutes 
• M81-M82 - RGB (2020): Bode's and Cigar Galaxies - 17 Hours 15 Minutes

• NGC 5907 - Luminance (2020): Knife Edge or Splinter Galaxy - 20 Hours 20 Minutes

NGC 5907 - The Knife Edge or Splinter Galaxy (left) imaged on ATEO-1, M81, and M82 - Bode's and Cigar Galaxies (upper right) imaged on ATEO-1, and IC 405 - The Flaming Star Nebula (lower right) imaged on ATEO-2A.

ATEO-2A - 5" f/5.8 Williams Optics APO refractor:

• IC405 One-Shot Color (2020): Flaming Star Nebula - 3 Hours 30 Minutes

ATEO-3 - 12.5" f/9 Quasar Ritchey-Chretien:

• Gum 15 - Luminance (2020): Nebula in Vela - 12 Hours 20 Minutes 
• Gum 15 - RGB (2020): Nebula in Vela - 6 Hours 40 Minutes

• NGC 1365 - Luminance (2020): Great Barred Spiral Galaxy - 7 Hours 40 Minutes 
• NGC 1365 - RGB (2020): Great Barred Spiral Galaxy - 8 Hours 20 Minutes

For any questions regarding Starbase, please Contact Us.

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M81 and M82 - "The Odd Couple"

Think of the perfect example of a "well-behaved", spiral galaxy, and M81 comes to mind, as, utter perfection. In the opposite direction, think of a galactic, "wild and crazy guy" - and it's M82. Now think of them, as a pair. Talk about an "Odd Couple"!

We are extremely fortunate to have this pair, as nearby as they are, at roughly, 12 light-years. The two, are members of the Ursa Major galactic cluster - a knot, in the Virgo Super-cluster of galaxies, as is our own, "Local Group", of galaxies.

M81, Bode's Galaxy (left), and M82, The Cigar Galaxy (right) in Ursa Major imaged on ATEO-1, the 16" f/3.7 astrograph reflector. Image data were acquired by Muir Evenden and processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

M81 and M82, are among the finest targets for the amateur astronomer with, even, a medium-sized telescope (6"-12"), their magnitude being, approximately, 7th, and 9th, respectively. But they can be detected in smaller scopes, and even, in a good pair of binoculars*, under good sky transparency conditions.

Let's separate the pair out for some analyses:

M81 is a type Sa spiral galaxy. It's, well - perfect. So much so, that it shares the distinctive title of, relatively few galaxies, as a "Grand Design Spiral". Now, that's something to boast about. And I do!

At a diameter of 90,000 light-years, and a distance of 12 million light-years, its relatively large size, and brightness, make it a "stunning" find in the eyepiece. In medium-sized scopes (12+"), the uniformity of its, "oh!-so-homogenous" spiral-arm structure, is notable.

And then, there was M82...

Well; if ever a galaxy looked like it was exploding - M82 - is it. In fact, for a very long time, that's just what astronomers thought was happening. However, there's a little more to it: what's really going on there, is, a massive outburst of star formation - to the point, that, in a sense it is "exploding" - with new stars! Our, Milky Way galaxy (BTW: a barred spiral, or, Sb-type), has a stellar generation rate of about 3, new stars, per year. M81's rate of star formation is something like 33 times that, of ours! (Whew!)

Because of the intense gravitational interaction between M81 and M82 - as well as, nearby, Ursa Major group member, NGC3077 - a small, disrupted, elliptical galaxy - both, M82 and NGC3077 are undergoing, intense, star formation periods in a very short span of time, as galaxies go. Tidal, and other, interruptions are causing large volumes of gases between the three galaxies, to fall inward, toward the cores of M82 and NGC3077. (M81 is, seemingly, immune to this sort of thing, of course!) But, all, three galaxies, are enveloped within interactive streams of gases. Both, M81 and M82, have hosted fairly recent supernovae activity; SN1993-J, in 1993 in M81 - and, SN2014-J, in 2014 in M82.

* Some, experienced, advanced amateurs have been able to detect both of these galaxies, under extremely good transparency conditions using only the unaided eye!

Dale Alan Bryant
Senior Contributing Science Writer

24 hours of Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue image data of M81 and M82 are available for download from Insight Observatory's deep-sky image repository, Starbase. 

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What's In The Sky - March 2020

Take your family on a journey to the stars from the comfort of your own backyard! Here are some of Orion Telescopes and Binoculars' top picks for March stargazing:

M42, The Orion Nebula imaged on Insight Observatory's ATEO-3 remote telescope by Jimmy D. from Plymouth South Middle School, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Orion Continues to Shine

Constellation Orion is still well-placed in March skies for telescopic study. Check out the bright nebula M42, also called the Orion Nebula, which is visible as the middle "star" of Orion's "sword" just south of the three recognizable stars of Orion's belt. While easily detected in astronomy binoculars, the wispy Orion Nebula will reveal more intricate details in a telescope. After March, our namesake constellation will get lower and lower in the west, making it harder to see as the Sun moves eastward in the sky.

Brilliant Binocular Clusters

Grab a pair of 50mm or larger astronomy binoculars in March for great views of the Pleiades star cluster (M45), the Beehive cluster (M44), and the must-see Double Cluster in Perseus. These sparkling sky gems are simply beautiful when observed with big binoculars, or use a wide-field eyepiece and short focal length telescope for a closer look.

Galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major were imaged on Insight Observatory's ATEO-1 remote telescope and processed by Utkarsh Mishra from almost 5 hours of image data.

Galaxies Galore

By about 9-10pm throughout March, Ursa Major, Leo, and the western edge of the Virgo galaxy cluster are high enough in the eastern sky to yield great views of some of our favorite galaxies. Check out the bright pair of M81 and M82 just above the Big Dipper asterism. Look east of bright star Regulus to observe the Leo Triplet of galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628. In the northeastern sky, check out the famous Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). While the Whirlpool can be seen with modest 50mm binoculars, using a 10" or 12" telescope in a location with dark skies will display the distant galaxy's beautiful spiral arms. With an 8" or larger telescope and a dark sky, this region of the sky harbors dozens of galaxies — try to find them all!

Orion Telescopes and Binoculars 10", 12", and 8" Dobsonian Telescopes are ideal for viewing deep-sky objects such as M42, the Orion Nebula, and galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. Image credits: Orion Telescope and Binoculars.

Morning Close Approaches

Starting on March 19th and for the next two mornings, Mars and Jupiter will be less than 1 degree apart. At around 60x magnification they should both fit in the field of view of a telescope. The pair rise around 04:30 in the southeastern sky, and for observers near 40 degrees latitude will reach an altitude of approximately 25 degrees by sunrise at 07:00. Saturn isn't too far away either, about 7 degrees away from the pair that morning.

On March 31st Mars continues its trek across the morning sky to meet with Saturn for a close approach of 54 arcminutes as the Sun rises.

All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights where light pollution and when bright moonlight does not overpower the stars.

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Elementary Students Research Deep Space Images

Insight Observatory was excited to offer elementary school students the chance to access their online remote robotic telescope, the Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO), to acquire their deep space images. The students used the Educational Image Request (EIR) to submit their deep-space image requests. They were then able to choose to image with either the 16" reflector (ATEO-1) or the 5" refractor (ATEO-2A) telescopes. Manomet Elementary School Teacher, Nancy Cavicchi describes the class assignment...

"This past January and February, the student’s from my 5th-grade science classes from Plymouth, Massachusetts had the unique opportunity to work collaboratively with Insight Observatory.

5th-grade students submitting their image requests on Insight Observatory's 
Educational Image Request (EIR) form. Photo by Mrs. Cavicchi.

Students were paired up to work together to research different celestial bodies. Their assignment was to become “class experts” and to share their knowledge with each other. Students spent time researching their choice of a galaxy or a nebula. They gathered information, created a Google slide presentation, and then presented it to their classmates.

M42 - The Orion Nebula imaged on ATEO-2A by Kasey G. and Haylee L., NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy imaged on ATEO-2A by Julianna S. and Lily H. and M44 - The Beehive Open Cluster imaged on ATEO-1 by Faith N. and Oliver E. from Mrs. Cavicchi's 5th-grade science classes.

All their hard work paid off when the remote telescopes in New Mexico captured images of each student’s celestial body. Their excitement was beyond anything we could have imagined. When we started this project they had a very basic knowledge of space and did not have a clear understanding of how vast space really is. While researching, the children’s curiosity grew tremendously to discover the depth of space exploration."

M81 - Bode's Galaxy imaged on ATEO-1 by Madison M. and Bianca B. and M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy imaged ATEO-1 by Makenna S. and Odybray F. from Mrs. Cavicchi's 5th-grade science classes.

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Deep Sky Image Database - M81 and M82 Galaxies

As the crew of Insight Observatory works on getting the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO) ready for first light in 2017, it is now time to start compiling databases of deep-sky images as well as designing a curriculum for teaching deep-sky imaging using remote robotic telescopes. As the Insight Observatory deep-sky image database accumulates, it will be available for educational purposes as well as material for software publications. 

Seeing that the ATEO will be hosted in the mountains of New Mexico, we thought it would be a good idea to start the deep-sky image database using the remote robotic telescopes on the iTelescope network hosted at their Mayhill, New Mexico facility. Their dark-sky site is very comparable to the site the ATEO will be hosted at the SkyPi Remote Observatory located in Pie Town, New Mexico.

M81 (left) and M82 (right) were imaged on T20 by Insight Observatory.

On the morning of November 10, 2016, we compiled raw data of the galaxy pair M81 and M82 located in the constellation of Ursa Major. The two objects were nearly perfectly placed at the meridian when the images were acquired. The telescope system that was used is known as T20 on the iTelescope network. The instrument is a very wide-field telescope, typically used for wide-field RGB / Narrowband Imaging, but also carries a Photometric V filter.

T20 is a great platform for wide-angle imaging and can also do valuable scientific research with its photometric V filter. This small Takahashi FSQ could also serve as a tool for scanning for asteroids and working on variable stars. Nothing can match its very wide field portraits and its performance on the sky's larger extended objects such as large nebula, clusters, bright comets and even catching fast-moving Near-Earth Objects.

T20 - iTelescope.net.

After the raw data was taken on T20, it was then stacked and processed using a CCD imaging software package called PixInsight. The images of M81 and M82 that were stacked consisted of five Luminance (clear) images at 300 seconds, four Red filtered images at 180 seconds, four Green filtered images at 180 seconds, and four Blue filtered images at 180 seconds. After the images were processed in PixInsight, the final image was then post-processed using Photoshop CS6.



A few Facts about M81 and M82:

• Messier 81 was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 31, 1774. Consequently, the galaxy is sometimes referred to as "Bode's Galaxy". In 1779, Pierre Méchain and Charles Messier reidentified Bode's object, which was subsequently listed in the Messier Catalogue.


• Only one supernova has been detected in Messier 81. The supernova, named SN 1993J, was discovered on 28 March 1993 by F. Garcia in Spain. At the time, it was the second brightest supernova observed in the 20th century.


• Messier 81 is located approximately 10° northwest of Alpha Ursae Majoris along with several other galaxies in the Messier 81 Group. Messier 81 and Messier 82 can both be viewed easily using binoculars and small telescopes. The two objects are generally not observable to the unaided eye, although highly experienced amateur astronomers may be able to see Messier 81 under exceptional observing conditions with a very dark sky. Telescopes with apertures of 8 inches (20 cm) or larger are needed to distinguish structures in the galaxy. Its far northern declination makes it generally visible for observers in the northern hemisphere. It is not visible to most observers in the southern hemisphere, except those in a narrow latitude range immediately south of the equator.


• Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82) is a starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. A member of the M81 Group, it is about five times more luminous than the whole Milky Way and has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy's center. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81. As the closest starburst galaxy to our own, M82 is the prototypical example of this galaxy type. SN 2014J, a Type Ia supernova, was discovered in the galaxy on January 21, 2014.  In 2014, in studying M82, scientists discovered the brightest pulsar yet known, designated M82 X-2.


• Messier 82 was previously believed to be an irregular galaxy. In 2005, however, two symmetric spiral arms were discovered in near-infrared (NIR) images of M82. The arms were detected by subtracting an axisymmetric exponential disk from the NIR images. Even though the arms were detected in NIR images, they are bluer than the disk. The arms were previously missed due to M82's high disk surface brightness, our nearly edge-on view of this galaxy (~80°), and obscuration by a complex network of dusty filaments in its optical images. These arms emanate from the ends of the NIR bar and can be followed for the length of 3 disc scales. Assuming that the northern part of M82 is nearer to us, as most of the literature does, the observed sense of rotation implies trailing arms.

Sources: Wikipedia M81 and M82

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Supernova in Galaxy M82

On January 21, 2014, a group of astronomy students spotted an extragalactic supernova in the galaxy known as M82, the famous nearby irregular galaxy located in the constellation of Ursa Major. It peaked at magnitude 10.5 during the first week of February, but as of February 28th, it was still quite visible in amateur scopes at about magnitude 11.7.

The discovery of this extragalactic supernova will provide an opportunity for students and amateur astronomers to study such an event utilizing remote robotic telescopes for astronomy research and education. Students and amateur astronomers could take sequential images of the galaxy over a period of nights to compare the supernova's change in magnitude.

Before and after photos of the galaxy M82 showing the appearance of a  brand new 11.7 magnitude supernova. 
Image by E. Guido, N. Howes, M. Nicolini

Spectra showed it to be a Type Ia supernova  (an exploded white dwarf) with debris originally expanding at up to 20,000 kilometers per second. It is significantly dimmed and reddened by dust in M82 along our line of sight. By one estimate, it would be two magnitudes brighter if we were seeing it in the clear.

< Because this new supernova is currently at magnitude +11 to +12, it's definitely not visible to the naked eye. You’ll need a 4-inch telescope at least to be able to see it. That said, at 12 million light-years away, this is (at the moment) the brightest, closest supernova since SN 1993 J exploded in neighboring galaxy M81 approximately 21 years ago. M81 and M82, along with NGC 3077, form a close-knit interacting group.

M82 is a bright, striking edge-on spiral galaxy bright enough to see in binoculars. Known as the Cigar or Starburst Galaxy because of its shape and a large, active starburst region in its core, it’s only 12 million light-years from Earth and home to two previous supernovae in 2004 and 2008. Neither of those came anywhere close to being as bright as the discovery, and it’s very possible the new object will become brighter yet.

The supernova occurred when the dwarf packed enough pounds to reach a mass 1.4 times that of the Sun, and it can no longer support itself. The star suddenly collapses, heats to incredible temperatures, and burns up explosively in a runaway fusion reaction. What we see here on Earth is the sudden appearance of a brand new star within the galaxy’s disk. Of course, it’s not really a new star, but rather the end of an aged one.

T24 is the largest iTelescope system in the Northern Hemisphere. It is big, it is beautiful. Situated under dark and clear skies deep in its Sierra mountains remote location in Northern California USA. This is the same location Insight Observatory plans to host the 16" Dream Astrograph Telescope.

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M81 and M82 on a Moonlit Night

With my colleague Mike's current success at obtaining images from the remote robotic telescopes specializing in astronomy education,  iTelescope.net, I took a crack at capturing a few myself this weekend. Target? Old standby M81 and M82, are a good choice for a first target since it is big and bright and has a number of surrounding galaxies that makes a wide-field shot interesting (and the moon was out as well so no "faint fuzzies" tonight). Here is the image, a 5-minute exposure. The beauty of this? I'm half a world away in Poland, Saturday morning, and yet I'm imaging from the dark skies in New Mexico...

M81 and M82 - Spiral Galaxies in Ursa Major

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