Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 20

Sweet View

M82

Coast Range Mountains in 2011. They looked best at
812×. At this magniﬁcation the SSCs sparkled with tiny,
star-like knots in the 28-inch scope - a fantastic sight!

Shapes
The superwind and dust overlay of the central area creates some intriguing features, the most prominent of
which is the hourglass-shaped dark lane cutting M82 in
half. This is the most reliable dark feature for observation along M82's length. All the other dark and bright
features are smaller, and can seem tossed together willynilly at low power.
The eastern core - Region B - can be particularly
uncertain. A major starburst area about 100 million
years ago, it's now settled down. The tiny bright spot
labeled B2-1 can only be seen at high magniﬁcation with
steady seeing.
More generally, the eastern half of the galaxy appears
fairly straight, while subtle curves embellish the western
half. The brightest arc begins with a slight northeast
twist then gracefully turns west while fading into the
blackness of intergalactic space.

Region B

Southern Superwind

So what blew me away at Steens Mountain?

Region A
Region C

Source B2-1

Region E

Northern Superwind

After centering M82 in my low-power eyepiece I
bumped up the magniﬁcation to 408×. I was immediately stunned to see - easily see - the highly complex
superwind and dust lanes silhouetted against the central
portion of the galaxy in exquisite detail. Wow!!
It was simply beyond expectation to see this extravagant level of resolution. I was astonished and completely
surprised by this intricately woven veil of black lace - it
was a fantastically delicate and awesome sight. This gave
the central area of M82 an appearance reminiscent of
a naked-eye view of the summer Milky Way, which is a
remarkable comparison to make with a galaxy 11.8 million light-years away.
There are faint details in many deep-sky objects that
force me to check my preconceptions to make sure what
I'm seeing is real, usually because I'm putting a great
deal of eﬀort into seeing them. This was the opposite of
that, and remains one of the most memorable sights I've
seen through any telescope.

Region D

M81 is beautiful
SUPERWIND & SSCS
I used observations gathered over a
four-year period, using magniﬁcations
ranging from 155× to 812×, to make this
drawing of M82. An IO spiral galaxy
seen edge-on, M82 is about 37,000
light-years in diameter. At magnitude
8.4, it's 1.5 magnitudes fainter than
M81. North is to the right.

May 2016 sky & telescope

ALL SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR

The view of M81 from Steens Mountain was also the
most gorgeously detailed I've ever seen - it just wasn't
as staggering a sight as M82.
M81 looked magniﬁcent, though, with a fully realized
view of its grand design spiral features, sprinkled with a
handful of details I hadn't been able to see before.
A classic SA(s)ab spiral, M81 is the epitome of a beautifully symmetrical and serene-looking two-arm galaxy,
and a perfect contrast to the apparent chaos of M82.
Unfortunately, many of M81's features are diﬃcult to see

Sky and Telescope - May 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - May 2016