Here's my last effort at M81 and M82 for now. I had what looked like a clear sky a few nights ago so I spent a long night with Messier 81 again, hoping to improve on the quality and detail in my final image. I couldn't see the patchy high cloud which came out in image processing; out of 24 exposures at 458 seconds each, only five passed quality control. With five already in the bag from the March 3rd session, I have a total of 10 frames to stack; not the 30 I had hoped for.

The stacked image appeared with a strange orange-brown cast, which I interpret as sodium street light from distant cities being scattered by the patchy high cloud. It might be true. I've managed to remove most of the orange color.

I think this is as good as I'm going to get with my equipment. It's all a learning experience. One day I'll be the best astrophotographer in the cemetery.

The impressive spiral galaxy is Messier 81, 12 million light years away. It is Milky Way size and has a massive black hole hiding in that very bright galactic center. This galaxy anchors its own galactic group of galaxies, the M81 group.

The odd cigar shaped thing is Messier 82, a starburst galaxy also 12 million light years away. It is the second-largest member of the M81 Group. It doesn't look like much, but it is about five times more luminous than the Milky Way and its central region is about one hundred times more luminous. It is the closet starburst galaxy to us.