The Sombrero Galaxy

I dropped by DG's Starbox in North Central Ohio last night for an observing session with Dave.
We checked out the New Moon and Venus and Satarn and M42, the Pliades and Hyades, King Cobra
and other odds and ends. Once darkness settled in we could see how truly transparent the sky was so
we decided to concentrate on photographing Galaxies.

I took the time to do a good polar alignement, lined up my setting circles and settled in for a night of
astrophotography under a pristene (above freezing!) sky.  Thanks to Dave's tutoring I was finally able
to master focusing my camera/scope combination using a software program called ImagesPlus.

Here's the Sombrero Galaxy.


This is a stacked image contaning 6 sub exposures ranging from 30sec to 70 seconds using a Canon
30D @ ISO 400-1600, mounted prime focus on my Meade 8" f/6.3. I did no guiding.