NGC 3077 in Ursa Major

NGC 3077 in Ursa Major Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

NGC 3077 is a small but bright pecu­li­ar galaxy about 45′ east-south­east of the mag­ni­fi­cient spir­al galaxy M81 in Ursa Major, which has an equally dynam­ic com­pan­ion, M82 (The Cigar Galaxy).
In the mid-nine­teenth cen­tury, NGC 3077 was thought to be either an irreg­u­lar len­ticular (I0) galaxy or a pecu­li­ar mixed spir­al len­ticular galaxy (SAB0p). Today we know NGC 3077 is a nearby dwarf star­burst galaxy with a true lin­ear extent of 20’000 light-years at a dis­tance of about 12.5 mil­lion light-years.

In this deep exposed image, many sim­il­ar­it­ies to M82 become obvi­ous. Spe­cific­ally a couple of red jets near the cen­ter are clearly visable.

[descrip­tion from O’Meara]

Details

Tele­scope:
RCOS 14.5″ f/​8
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
Apo­gee U16M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
LRGB 780:220:200:180 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart NGC 3077

NGC 3077 Galaxy Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz Skychart

Image cre­ated by Skychart

About Me

Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. “Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”. Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.

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