In this frame, you can marvel at the sight of 25 NGC, 30 IC, and over 500 PGC galaxies!  It is really something that we can do this with our limited equipment from earth.  

I find immense joy in capturing and contemplating star fields and these deep field galaxy images - astonishing.   As I gaze upon them, I can't help but ponder the unfathomable energy that permeated the universe at its inception. It's awe-inspiring to imagine that this energy is a part of the photons from our sun, eventually contributing to the avocado I'm slicing for my breakfast toast some ~13.4 billion years later 😀.

During our road trip to Texas for the eclipse, a journey spanning 4,000 miles round trip (which I'd do again in a heartbeat), I brought along only one telescope—my WO 102GT.  Although the 9.25HD would have been preferable for this time of year, space in the van was limited.  On our second night, we settled in at an RV park in Taos, NM, nestled at an elevation of 7,000 feet.  Despite clear skies, the park was marred by light pollution, prompting me to utilize a light pollution filter. (There was this guy unscrewing lights and putting towels over some 🤪).  It seems some campers believe nocturnal raccoons require illumination for their nighttime wanderings 😂. The subsequent night found us at Clayton Lake State Park in NM, boasting a recognized dark Bortle 2 site with a staggering SQM of 21.76!  I highly recommend this site, though securing a campsite far from the park's entrance around the lake is advisable to evade the light pollution from fellow RVs.  I removed the luminance filter - a first for me.

Our journey continued with a night in Devil Canyon dispersed camping in Texas, perched at an elevation of 3,000 feet and boasting a respectable SQM of 21.00.  We were all alone!  Our travels then took us to Oklahoma City to visit friends before reaching Sulphur Springs, Texas, where we experienced the eclipse from the welcoming embrace of a Methodist church parking lot. The pastor and folks were wonderful. Despite a few clouds, the spectacle of totality was nothing short of breathtaking, although perhaps not as "life-changing" as some have described - as an astrophotographer and amateur astronomer, I've already been “life changed”.  Homeward bound, we seized the opportunity to fulfill another bucket list item by traversing the Rockies, which on the way led us back to Clayton Lake.  One of the best nights of seeing in my life.  Our journey continued with a night at an RV park in Ouray, Colorado, situated at an elevation of over 7,000 feet, though once again plagued by parking lights (and the recurring sight of a vigilant individual tampering with them 🤪).  There is so much to do and see in the Rockies…we will go back for at least a week.  Our final night was spent near Williams, Arizona, nestled along Garland Prairie Rd, where dispersed camping at an elevation of 7,000 feet provided an SQM of 21.00.   I highly recommend this place for a night or two.    (averaged a respectable 17mpg in the fully loaded van; drove the 70 and then 75 speed limit most of the way; had only one difficult moment when a big rig swerved towards us but hit the brakes hard and avoided.)  

This is an essentially an uncropped image with only the top left stars a bit misshaped.  I might process again to get more star color...or not 😂.  

from Wikipedia:  Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. When viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. Charles Messier first discovered two of the galaxies, M84 and M86, in 1781. The other galaxies seen in the chain were discovered by William Herschel and are now known primarily by their catalog numbers in John Louis Emil Dreyer's New General Catalogue, published in 1888. It was ultimately named after the Armenian astrophysicist, Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.