Galaxy Portraits: A Collection of Distant Worlds
Galaxies I’ve Captured Over the Past Two Years I don’t have the ideal telescope focal length for imaging tiny galaxies. My current setup is a wide-field telescope, which is great for big nebulae but makes most distant galaxies appear small. In the future I plan on adding a longer focal length scope to get closer, more detailed views. For now, I’m excited to share the smaller galaxies I’ve imaged over the past two years with my modest astrophotography rig. All these photos were taken with the same equipment – see my section on equipment for more detail – and in my backyard under suburban skies. Despite the challenges, each galaxy revealed some of its unique details after careful long exposures and stacking. Galaxies come in a variety of types and sizes, and this collection covers a broad sample. You’ll see spiral galaxies (like M51 and M81) which are rotating disks of stars with winding arms, an elliptical galaxy (M84 in Markarian’s Chain) which is a more rounded system of older stars with little new star formation, and even a starburst galaxy (M82) undergoing intense stellar production. There are also interacting galaxies tugging on each other gravitationally, and entire galaxy groups and clusters (Markarian’s Chain in the Virgo Cluster, and the distant Leo Cluster). The sections below breakdown a variety of different galaxies I captured along with some interesting facts and notes on the imaging process. Enjoy! Messier 51 – The Whirlpool Galaxy The Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), is a face-on spiral galaxy famous for its well-defined spiral arms. It lies about 23–31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. M51 is a grand-design spiral galaxy – one with prominent and well-defined spiral arms- with a smaller companion galaxy, NGC 5195, tugging at one of its arms. With an apparent magnitude of about 8.4, M51 is bright enough that amateur astronomers can spot its fuzzy glow even in smaller telescopes, so it’s a favorite target for observers and astrophotographers. M51’s spiral arms owe much of their prominence to the gravitational dance with NGC 5195, which is triggering star formation as the two galaxies interact. My wide-field image of M51 doesn’t show individual stars, but the classic two-arm “whirlpool” shape is clearly visible after stacking long exposures. This galaxy’s relatively high surface brightness makes it one of the more forgiving small-galaxy targets to photograph with modest equipment. Still, I look forward to revisiting the Whirlpool Galaxy with a higher magnification setup to reveal finer details in its spiral arms. Messier 81 – Bode’s Galaxy Bode’s Galaxy (Messier 81), is a grand-design spiral galaxy in Ursa Major (aka The Big Dipper). At roughly 11–12 million light-years from Earth, it’s one of the nearest big galaxies beyond our Local Group. M81 spans about 96,000 light years in diameter, similar in size to the Milky Way. This galaxy has a bright nucleus that harbors a supermassive black hole. Thanks to its large size, relative proximity, and overall brightness (around magnitude 6.9), M81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers and is another popular target. Through my equipment, M81 sits in the same field of view as its companion galaxy M82 (the Cigar Galaxy) mentioned below, and the two have interacted gravitationally in the past. I captured M81 in the spring season when Ursa Major was high in the sky, giving me the best chance at sharp images. I took over 500 five-minute exposures or 40 hours of exposure time over nine nights to stack and produce the image above. It was still a challenge to edit the image. After failing in 2023 and 2024 to produce an image I was happy with, I tried again in 2025 with more exposure time and better editing experience. I was finally able to draw out some of the faint outer spiral arms and show the galaxy’s yellowish core and bluish arms. Messier 82 – The Cigar Galaxy The Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82), is a starburst galaxy also located in Ursa Major, only about 12 million light-years away – essentially next-door to M81. Unlike the grand spiral form of its neighbor, M82 appears as a distorted, edge-on cigar-shaped glow. It is undergoing a frenzy of star formation. Astronomers believe this burst of star formation was triggered by a past close encounter with M81. The gravitational interaction compressed gas in M82, igniting rapid stellar birth. As a result, M82 is about 5 times more luminous than our entire Milky Way despite being much smaller. It’s the prototypical starburst galaxy, with winds of gas blowing out from its core – images in hydrogen-alpha often show reddish plumes from supernova-driven winds. Notably, M82 hosted a bright supernova (SN 2014J) discovered in 2014, and even more recently, in 2020-2023, it’s been the source of unusual flashes like an ultra luminous pulsar and a magnetar flare, highlighting the extreme conditions in this galaxy. In my photograph, M82 appears as a slender, elongated smudge. Pulling out detail in M82 is challenging with a wide-field scope because it’s quite small (about 11′ by 4′ arcminutes in size – Ill do a post on this later!). However, with enough exposure I could enhance the contrast to reveal an orange-reddish hue in the core (indicating the starburst regions rich in hydrogen). This photo of M82 was taken at the same time and within the same frame as M81 above – a total of 40 hours of exposure time. The galaxy’s patchy structure and the dark dust lane bisecting its center became visible. Barely visible is the faint reddish outflow coming from the core (the supernova-driven wind). M82’s high surface brightness helped; at about magnitude 8.4 it stands out well against the background sky. This galaxy, though small in my frame, is one of the most active and interesting objects I’ve imaged, due to its intense star-forming activity and gravitational interaction with M81 nearby. Messier 104 – The Sombrero Galaxy Though very small with my scope, the Sombrero Galaxy (M104), is one of my favorite objects Ive