NGC2903 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo, the Lion. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It is relatively bright, at 9.7 magnitude, and is a fairly large target, About 13 X 6 arc minutes. It is about 31 million light years away.
The other object imaged was Bode's Nebulae. Also known as M81 and M82, these 2 galaxies were discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774,
M81 is a grand spiral galaxy, and is a large, bright object, at 27 arcminutes across from our perspective. It is about 7th magnitude, so it is visible in binoculars. It is the largest galaxy in the M81 group which contains about 30 galaxies,averaging about 11 million light years away.
M82 is a very interesting galaxy. Even though it is smaller, The core of M82 is an active starburst region. New stars are being formed there at an incredible rate. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81.
Visually, the 2 make for a rather striking pair. Both will easily fit in a 1 degree field of view, so this image was taken with a DSLR and an 8", f/5 Newtonian reflector.
