Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Bode's Galaxy  ·  Cigar Galaxy  ·  M 81  ·  M 82  ·  NGC 3031  ·  NGC 3034  ·  NGC 3077
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Bodes Galaxy Redo, GiffS
Bodes Galaxy Redo
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Bodes Galaxy Redo

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Bodes Galaxy Redo, GiffS
Bodes Galaxy Redo
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Bodes Galaxy Redo

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Description

This target (M81) blows me away. A staggering 11.7 MILLION light years away it is hard to believe that a 3" refractor telescope can gather enough ancient light to produce this image.

I uploaded M81 before in late May of 2023. That image was 55 two-minute exposures and by any standard is a pretty awful example of astrophotography. This image uses the exact same image train but is made up of 220 two-minute exposures. The Seeing and guiding were much better on this night than the previous one and it shows.  I did try stacking all of the exposures, 275 of them, and the result was disappointing. It may have something to do with the calibration files, particularly the Flats, but I think that adding extra data of poorer quality does not "help" the end result.

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Bodes Galaxy Redo, GiffS