### Welcome to the next episode of Astronomical Observations! We continue observations of galaxies. These are the most distant objects within the reach of amateurs. Watching them is a journey in time. They are really far away from us. This time I am presenting you a galaxy lying close to the last-described M81. Messier 82 is an irregular galaxy that is about 12 million light-years from Earth.
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<center>***Photo of the M82 galaxy with a long exposure time***
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/M82_HST_ACS_2006-14-a-large_web.jpg/986px-M82_HST_ACS_2006-14-a-large_web.jpg
<sub>*By NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) [link](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M82_HST_ACS_2006-14-a-large_web.jpg) [Public domain]*</sub></center>
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<div class="text-justify">It is in the constellation Ursa Major. This is one of the most active galaxies we know. It is probably a gigantic incubator generating new stars. M82 is one of the most popular objects of the sky and is quite well visible even in mediocre conditions and by a medium telescope. The galaxy is turned to us sideways, and we see its flattened disk. The object's dimensions in the sky are 11.2 '× 4.3' (arc minutes). The brightness of the observed galaxy is +8.4 magnitude, i.e. the object is beyond the reach of the naked eye. However, the 7 X 50 binoculars and the rural sky allow you to see the long haze, or rather both galaxies (M81 and M82), because they are very close together. Using a telescope with a minimum diameter of 6 inches (150 mm) should show the galaxy even in the suburban sky. However, its real beauty will be shown by instruments over 8 inches (200 mm) in diameter. Under a dark rural sky, they will allow them to admire the irregular structure of the galaxy and see the dark bands appearing in it. By the large 12-inch telescope I have, in good conditions M82 looks like in the pictures below. In 2014 amateurs similar to my telescope discovered a supernova with magnitude 11.5 magnitude in M82. It reached its maximum brightness on January 31, reaching +10.5 magnitude.</div>
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<center>***Supernova in M82 on 21 January 2014. (The same view, from 10 December 2013 for comparison)***
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/M_82_supernova.jpg
<sub>*By UCL/University of London Observatory/Steve Fossey/Ben Cooke/Guy Pollack/Matthew Wilde/Thomas Wright [link](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M_82_supernova.jpg) [CC BY 3.0 license]*</sub></center>
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<div class="text-justify">I was able to observe it, so during the article the memories of the views come back. Live images of course in much better resolution. I recommend seeing the galaxy Cigar on some astronomical rally. This object really makes an impression. The Cigar galaxy is moving us at around 50 km / s. Probably about 600 million years ago there was a collision with the neighboring galaxy M81. It was after this collision that M82 became an irregular galaxy, and the collision energy created violent processes that created stars. The view of both galaxies that is currently reaching us shows that they are separated by about 150,000 light years. M82 is a source of X-rays, which indicates the existence of massive black holes in it. In the photo below you can see how the two galaxies look together.</div>
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<center>***M81 and M82***
<sub>*By Sebastien Lebrigand from Crépy-en-Valois, FRANCE [link](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GALAXY_M81_and_M82_(10174045756).jpg) [CC BY-SA 2.0 licence]*</sub></center>
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<div class="text-justify">Such views as picture above are available in telescopes with the lowest magnification of 30 – 50 X. In binoculars we have an even larger field of view, however, due to the smaller diameter of the binoculars' lenses, the picture loses much on the brightness of the telescope. I must admit that this famous pair of galaxies is one of my favorite deep sky objects. I recommend everyone to travel outside the city under the dark sky and I wish you the opportunity to see these objects live. It is amazing that an amateur astronomer can observe distant galaxies on his own. In such moments, man realizes how little means in the whole huge universe.</div>
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## <center> *Greetings to lovers of Astronomy!* </center>
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#### <center> *References:* </center>
<center>**[Messier 82](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_82)*</center>
<center>*[M81 Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M81_Group)*</center>
<center>*[SN 2014J](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_2014J)*</center>
<center>*and my knowledge</center>
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<center><sub>*All rights reserved by @astromaniac 2018*</sub></center>
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