After a cloudy start to Tuesday evening the sky cleared so I took some pictures of M81 in Ursa Major. M81 was discovered by Johann Bode in 1774 and is named Bode’s Nebula. At about 12 million light years distance it’s one of the closest galaxies outside the local group.
Telescope was the Celestron 9.25″ with f/6.3 reducer. 13 exposures of 2 minutes each were taken with the Canon 350D plus 5 dark frames.
The slightly mis-shapen star at 2 o’clock from the galaxy is actually a double star, HP38635A & B.