Its been quite a while since I have shared any of my astrophotography shots (or posted anything for that matter) and today I just felt like sharing some of my recent astrophotography pictures with you guys.  Below are my shots of the Cigar Galaxy and Bode’s Galaxy as well as information about the images themselves and my imaging setup.

This is M81, better known as Bode’s Galaxy.

This is M82, better known as the Cigar Galaxy.

Often you will see the these two galaxies in the same shot but I decided to put them in separate shots to give each of them focus and make for a better image of each of them.  Below are the technical specifications for the shots since there is always people asking what I used to get the amazing shots I do.

My telescope setup:

• Celestron C9.25″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope
• Celestron Advanced VX mount
• Starlight Instruments FeatherTouch Microfocuser
• Orion’s Mini-Magnificent Autoguider Package
• Meade .63 Focal Reducer
• Canon T1i DSLR (modified for astrophotography)

As for the images themselves:

• 3 minute sub-exposures @ ISO 800
• M81 total exposure time: 2hr 27min
• M82 total exposure time: 1hr 36min
• Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
• Processed in Photoshop CS2

If you enjoy my these shots of the Cigar Galaxy and Bode’s Galaxy and all of my other astrophotography images, let me know in the comments below and I will share more of it!  I’ve got a lot of pictures of various deep sky objects ranging from galaxies to nebulas and star clusters that I can share and if there is a clear night, you can bet I am out taking more so if you guys want to see more, leave me a comment!

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