M81 is a beautifull spiral that is one of the great showpiece galaxies in the northern sky.

In 1993, a star inside of M81 exploded in a supernova named SN 1993J. Hold your mouse cursor over the image to see a photo of the supernova.

The supernova, discovered by Spanish amateur astronomer Francisco Garcia Diaz on March 28, 1993 with a 10 inch Newtonian telescope, was one of the brightest in recent years.

Other individual stars in these images are foreground stars that are located inside of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Individual stars inside of other galaxies are usually not resolved because of their great distance. A supernova however, is bright enough to be recorded.

With a visual magnitude of 6.8, M81 is probably the farthest object that can be seen with the unaided eye at a distance of 12 million light years.

This image was taken using an 8" Ritchey Chretien Astrograph @ F/6.4 and Canon 40D DSLR. 16 images X 420 seconds @ ISO1600 were captured in Nebulosity. Guiding with PHD and processed in Images Plus and Photoshop CS5 with Noel Carboni`s Actions