MicroObservatory: M81

I recently happened upon the Harvard University MicroObservatory web site which features a system of remote-controlled 6" Maksutov telescopes with CCD imagers. Visitors are allowed to pick targets from a list of various objects; the request is then scheduled and imaged. An email is sent to notify you that your image is ready for download.

I chose spiral galaxy M81 (NGC-3031) since it's on my list of April Messier objects in Ursa Major on the evening of 21 Apr 2006. The next day I found the notification email with a link to my image. The unadjusted GIF image was OK, showing little more than the bright nucleus of the galaxy:


A bit of Photoshop tweaking and I was able to draw out the bar and spiral arms. I didn't have much luck reducing the grain, but the result is better than I expected when I first saw the raw image:


Cool.