Galaxies in Ursa Major/Canes Venatici

The Big Dipper is simply loaded with galaxies...the two most famous are M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy. From those two, starting at the Dipper's handle, one can take a galaxy-hopping tour of the sky in the North. Unfortunately, the North is where my local pollution is brightest, between Target and Home Depot's parking lot lights (thanks, guys) and a neighbor who uses halogen floods across my back fence, again all night.So, the same excuses, blah blah blah, but I really can't wait to shoot these guys from a dark site.

Here is my first attempt at M51, from March 5.

On March 9, I got some better shots, but it was very windy, especially up high. Note how that causes starts to twinkle, and causes time exposures to make blobs out of stars. In spite of that, the air was clear enough that I could start to pull a little natural color out of the noise.

This is simply an averaged stack of the previous two pictures-I can't wait to get some dark-sky shots and play around with these same software toys.

M63, The Sunflower Galaxy, is just a quick hop from M51, part of my favorite trail. Again, room for improvement all around. 23 minutes total exposure. March 5 again.

Back to the Dipper's handle is M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. March 5.

And last in this night of shooting was M100, a bit south in Virgo. This was on the list of  "spiral or curvilinear nebulae" to be seen to have a spiral form by Lord Rosse, published in 1850; as poor as this shot is, I still have a better view than most of history's great astronomers...