These galaxies have an interesting history. They collided eons ago and M82 took the worse beating -- leaving it small, irregular and messy. M81, on the other hand, is known as a "starburst" galaxy -- meaning that the turbulence of the embrace set off an episode of novae and supernovae whereby some stars were destroyed and others created in the hot, swirling clouds of gas and dust. M81 is literally bursting with bright, new stars and broadly advertising its condition with copious X-ray emissions -- the screams of tortured matter.
M81 is the nearest starburst galaxy to Earth. It lies at a distance of some eight million light-years, yet it is bright enough to be seen in binoculars and its structure is easily discernable in the small telescope. Can you imagine how bright this galaxy would become as you approached it in a spaceship? Take a look at what the Hubble Space Telescope saw by looking up NASA's striking astronomy picture of the day for February 9, 2000. (Search for "M81" but omit the quotes.)
Robert Burnham Jr. in his wonderful Celestial Handbook gives a thorough treatise on these two galaxies and he even hints at the possibility that one galaxy blew a hole in the other during their suspected collision. But astronomers are still not sure just exactly what has transpired here. Whatever it was, it was certainly catastrophic. The extraordinary power of this explosion is evident in a picture published by Sky & Telescope, July 2000, page 20. "Awesome" is the best description for this chilling event.
Bodes' Galaxies are a bit difficult to find but with the aid of a good star chart and a careful, star-hopping approach they can become an exciting and worthwhile discovery.
Incidentally, a superb picture of what the backyard observer with a small telescope sees can be found in Astronomy, September 2004, page 87.