Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Ursa Major Galaxies (all night)

The Big Dipper asterism and its home constellation of Ursa Major are climbing the northeastern sky during evening in late March - ideal for observing the spectacular galaxies they host in strong binoculars or backyard telescopes on moonless nights. Draw a line connecting the dipper stars Phecda to Dubhe, and extend it by an amount equal to their separation to arrive at the galaxy named Bode's Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 81. It's a magnitude 6.9 spiral galaxy oriented not quite face-on to Earth, making it appear relatively large and bright. A smaller, magnitude 8.4 galaxy named the Cigar or Messier 82 is located half a degree to the north. That allows both galaxies to be viewed together in the eyepiece of a telescope at low magnification. Several other fainter galaxies can be found within a few degrees of Bode's Nebula.

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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* Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (954:100/61)