[wzslider]Alan Ćatović, the founder of Sarajevo astronomy group, took advantage of good weather last night and made photographed galaxies M81 and M82, and the planets Jupiter and Venus.
The galaxy M81, also known as Bode’s Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is 11.8 million light years away from us, and with its dimensions M81 is only slightly smaller than our Milky Way, which has a diameter of nearly 100 000 light years.
M82 is an irregular galaxy, also located in the constellation Ursa Major. Its irregular shape is a consequence of the “collision” with the M81, which took place 100 million years ago.
In this process, the smaller galaxy M82 has experienced a sudden collapse of a cloud of gas and dust due to tidal forces of the more massive M81. Distance between M81 and M82 is now “only” 300 000 light years.
“Astrophotography is in its infancy in our country, as it requires a lot of time and effort, and the equipment is expensive as well”, said Ćatović, who took advantage of relatively warm and clear weather to photograph the sky over Sarajevo.
“Primary telescope SW APO 900mm f/7.5 at NEQ6 podium, Celestron 400mm f/5.7 for guidance, Flatfield Flattener 0.85x, astronomical camera QHY 5-II, Canon 500D and laptop were used for this photo shooting”, said Ćatović.
(Source: klix.ba)
