'Cigar Galaxy'
Located 12 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the 'Cigar Galaxy' because of the elongated elliptical shape produced by the tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight.  
 
M82 is a magnificent starburst galaxy. Throughout its central region young stars are being born ten times faster than they are inside in our Milky Way Galaxy.

M82 occupies the same region of sky as M81and is around 11 million light years away. Lying edge on to us it presents a classic cigar shape, hence it's common name. M82 is a "starburst galaxy". The core of the galaxy contains some highly energised star clusters which are emitting huge amounts of ionised hydrogen. It may be that this results from disturbance following a previous interaction with M81.

This image was taken on the 16th May 2010 with a Canon 40D DSLR and Stellarview 102ED Refractor at F / 5.6. Exposure is 95 minutes, 19 x 5mins @ ISO 1600 captured in Nebulosity. Digital Development in Images Plus and final processing in Photoshop. Image magnified 100%.