Sky & Telescope - May 2021 - 56

MAY 2021 OBSERVING
Suburban Stargazer

S THE BEAST This HST portrait of M82 reveals vast outflows of dust and gas from the galaxy's
central region. The disheveled specimen is seemingly bursting at the seams. Thanks to its relatively high contrast, M82 stands up reasonably well against city light pollution. Even a relatively
modest telescope will reveal it (and beautiful neighbor M81) under such adverse sky conditions.

Peripheral Players
Two lesser members of the M81 Group
are within range of my trusty 10-inch.
Both are pallid, dust-ridden, " peculiar "
galaxies badly roughed up by M81.
Aiming my scope some 40′ southeast of
M81 snares two 8th-magnitude stars
roughly 9′ apart, one northeast of the
other. Together they guard NGC 3077,
which lies a few arcminutes southeast of the northeastern marker. The
9.9-magnitude galaxy is only a wee oval
haze. Its " guardian " stars, though, are
challenging doubles. The northeastern
guard, Σ1400, features a 9.8-magnitude

Suburban Big Bear Bits
Object
M81

Type
Galaxy

Mag(v)

Size/Sep

6.9

Dec.

25′ × 12′

09h

55.6m

09h

55.9m

+69° 41′

+69° 04′

Galaxy

8.4

11′ × 5′

Σ1387

Double star

10.7, 10.7

9.0″

09h 55.1m

+68° 56′

Σ1386

Double star

9.3, 9.3

2.2″

09h 55.1m

+68° 54′

Galaxy

9.9

5.2′ × 4.7′

10h

03.3m

+68° 44′

Double star

8.0, 9.8

3.6″

10h 02.9m

+68° 47′

8.0, 11.4

4.1″

10h

01.5m

+68° 43′

10.2

6.2′ × 3.1′

09h

47.2m

+67° 55′

M82

NGC 3077
Σ1400
Σ1398
NGC 2976

Double star
Galaxy

Angular sizes and separations are from recent catalogs. Visually, an object's size is often smaller than
the cataloged value and varies according to the aperture and magnification of the viewing instrument.
Right ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0.

M AY 2 0 2 1 * S K Y & T E L E S C O P E

companion 3.6″ southwest. The other
binary, Σ1398, hides an 11.4-magnitude
attendant 4.1″ east. These tough nuts
crack at 169× in steady seeing.
From Σ1400, a 1.7° sweep southwestward, through Σ1398 and onward past
7.7-magnitude HD 85828, arrives at a
lonely lump of light named NGC 2976.
This bland, 10.2-magnitude galaxy
seemed less appealing than NGC 3077
- until I examined it at 169×. Inclined
approximately halfway between edgeon and face-on, NGC 2976 appears
elongated roughly 2:1 on a northwestsoutheast slant. An extremely dim star
hugs its southwestern ﬂank.
These peripheral players might not
materialize in smaller backyard scopes,
but the headliners - M81 and M82 -
perform well in any optics. My 120-mm
f/7.5 apochromatic refractor operating at 38× captures the Beauty and the
Beast together perfectly.
One last thing: My views of the
misty-smudgy M81 Group were slightly
enhanced by a broadband light pollution ﬁlter. In the battle against city
lights, we suburban stargazers need
every break we can get.
Veteran deep-sky hunter KEN HEWITTWHITE bears down on Ursa Major from
his backyard whenever he can.

N ASA / ESA / THE HUBBLE HERITAG E TE A M (STSCI / AUR A)

this double-double hiding in plain sight!
Here's another Ken mea culpa.
From M81, the Cigar Galaxy is just a
northward nudge away. The shift to
M82 is simple when using an equatorially mounted scope. However, if you're
scrutinizing M81 at high power with a
Dobsonian, I can assure you the move
isn't foolproof. I remember the times
I'd casually aim kinda-sorta north to
pick up the impossible-to-miss M82.
Close, but no Cigar. Nowadays, I lower
the magniﬁcation and carefully tip-toe
directly north to claim my prize.
The spindly galaxy, canted northeast by southwest, divides into thirds.
The southwest third (the end closest
to M81) outshines the northeast third,
which seems ghostly at low power.
Thankfully, M82 magniﬁes well. At
169×, the disheveled galaxy ﬁlls out,
spanning at least 8′. Its thickened
middle third is splotchy, ragged, and
lacks a conspicuous nucleus. Instead,
there's a whitish area northeast of
center, and a pale patch southwest. In
place of the dynamic outﬂows captured
in astro-images, with averted vision I
see opposing indentations biting into
the middle and almost cutting M82 in
half. Somebody's been chomping on our
Cigar!

Sky & Telescope - May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - May 2021