Current Info for Observer
as of 04/25/2024 8:02 a.m.
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General Info
| Type | Irregular Galaxy |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Right ascension | 9h55'50.700'' |
| Declination | +69°41'43'' |
| Magnitude | 8.400 |
| Distance | 12,000,000ly |
| Size | 9 arc min |
| Catalog Designations | NGC3034, M82 |
| Discovered | 1774 Johann Bode |
Generate a finder chart
The following form will generate a PDF finder chart suitable for printing using to locate objects in the sky with your telescope!
The Date is only really useful for solar system objects, as deep space objects move measurably only on a galactic timescale.
The larger the F.O.V (field of view), the more "zoomed out" the object will appear. It can be helpful to print several charts of the same object with different field of views.
Limiting the magnitude (remember, lower magnitude means brighter!) of stars and objects can make sure your chart is not cluttered with dim objects that you may not be visible to you anyway. The defaults are good, but try experimenting with raising and lowering the values.
cyc66 (2891)
Celestron Omni XLT 150
10 points
Very faint visually, I wouldn't have found it if not for m81. It was clearly elongated and needed averted viewing to see.
Tyler (4830)
10" Dobsonian
10 points
mnastro (4583)
XX12i
10 points
Chased a few DSOs prior to the moon rise. Bode's Galaxy/Cigar Galaxy are once again high enough to clear the treeline from my observing site. Bode's galaxy is a nice faint face-on galaxy, but without any details in my suburban site. The Cigar galaxy shows mottling at higher magnification even in less than dark skies.
Both M81/82 fit into a single wide FOV eyepiece for a nice site on a chilly evening.
Exoplanet1 (1645)
10 points
Saw this faint fuzzy through the 8 inch at FIU. It is much longer than it is wide, probably leading people to call it the cigar galaxy.
Austin (5562)
Orion 10'' SkyQuest dobsonian
10 points
This is the companion object visible in my observation of M81 and M82. This galaxy is far smaller in angular size than Bode's galaxy, but does not appear much dimmer. It has a slightly elongated shape, appearing to be an edge on galaxy. Together, M81 and M82 make a very pleasant pair to observer.
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