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public Observing fromLocation: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt
north SunriseRise: 4:46  
clear_day Transit: 12:56  
SunsetSet: 21:07 south
sunny  • Daytime • What's Visible Now

In Evidence

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Other deep sky objects in Ursa Major
All Constellations »  Ursa Major »  Deep Sky Objects » 

Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major

Altitude: 36.5°   Azimuth: 19.3°   Direction: North-North-East

Messier 82 is a Spiral (?) Galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation. Messier 82 is situated close to the northern celestial pole and, as such, it is visible for most part of the year from the northern hemisphere.

Messier 82
Galaxy
Ursa Major

Messier 82 is above the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt.

Altitude: 36.5°
Azimuth: 19.3°
Direction: North-North-East

See also Messier 82 rise and set times.

Given its visual magnitude of 8.41, Messier 82 is visible with the help of a binocular with a 40-50mm aperture or a small telescope.

Available Resources for Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major

Photometric information of Messier 82

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 82 in different bands of the electomagnetic spectrum (when available), from the B band (445nm wavelength, corresponding to the Blue color), to the V band ( 551nm wavelength, corresponding to Green/Yellow color), to the J, H, K bands (corresponding to 1220nm, 1630nm, 2190nm wavelengths respectively, which are colors not visible to the human eye).

9.3
8.41
5.84
5.07
4.67

For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.

The surface brightess reported below is an indication of the brightness per unit of angular area of Messier 82.

22.22 mag/arcsec2

Apparent size of Messier 82

The following table reports Messier 82 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 82 is a visual representation of it.
10.99 arcmin
5.11 arcmin
66°

Digitized Sky Survey image of Messier 82

The image below is a photograph of Messier 82 from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 0.36633333333333x0.36633333333333 degrees (21.98x21.98 arcmins).

Image of Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major star
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DSS2 image of Messier 82 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (10.99 arcmin) and minor (5.11 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major morphological classification

Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major is classified as Spiral (?) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major
Visualization of the morphological classification of Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major, Spiral (?).
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY

Celestial coordinates and finder chart of Messier 82

Celestial coordinates for the J2000 equinox of Messier 82 are provided in the following table:

09h 55m 53s
+69° 40’ 45”

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 82 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

Finder chart Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major.

Finder chart Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major.

Rise ans set times of Messier 82 from your location

Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) - Spiral (?) Galaxy in Ursa Major is circumpolar and transits at 17:04 UTC (altitude: 71.8°)