M81 (bottom right), M82 (upper right), and the surprise NGC 3077 (lower left) which I didn't even know was there!
I've finally found a couple of nights where I could get out with the complete new rig: the Losmandy G11 mount, the new wide field camera and the small refractor telescope that sees a good chunk of sky.
The problem with the old rig was that the mount refused to be auto guided (although this photo isn't either but that's a whole 'nuther subject) and the camera's detector size was so small that you couldn't even fit the entire Moon in the frame and I wanted to take bigger shots than that so after a liberal application of JP Morgan's Magic Ointment ($$$) I have a new camera with a sensor that's five times bigger! This was the first night I had it all out and working at the same time.
My first experimental shot was of the Orion Nebula, which is quite large if you're going to get it all. As it turned out I was very happy to discover that not only could I get the entire nebula in the frame but also some of the neighboring stars from the Orion's Sword area so that in and of itself was pretty exciting.
While I was there I moved over to the Horsehead Nebula (just south of the easternmost belt star in Orion) just to see how that would come out but after four 90-second exposures I saw the stars were smearing pretty badly but was heartened to know that I'll be able to get a shot of not only the Horsehead but the Flame Nebula as well when I take that shot for real.
So I slewed on over to one of my favorite galaxy pairs, M81 & M82, near the bowl of the Big Dipper. This is a great pair visually in the 16-inch scope and at 12 million light years distant is challenging but still accessible for the gear that I have. I've always loved the contrast of M81 as a wide open, beautiful classic spiral galaxy and the gritty edge-on M82, which is nicknamed "The Cigar Galaxy" from the way it appears in the eyepiece. M82 is a really active galaxy in terms of star formation and there have been two supernovas there in the time that I've been into astronomy.
So I shot twenty 90-second exposures of this pair and things seemed to go well but you never really know until you get home and start combining them in the computer and seeing what you've really got!
After many attempts at processing I finally hit on a combination that I liked so the final image is the fifteen best exposures stacked and light-level stretched to get this final image. It's still a touch smeary if you really zoom in a lot which tells me I need to get better polar alignment for the mount which continues to vex and elude me. But at least I know now that it's me, not my gear that is the limiting factor!
Next target will be the Crab Nebula in Taurus I think!
Carpe Noctem!
Bill