M81 is the larger of the two bright galaxies in this photo.

"Messier 81 is the largest galaxy in the M81 Group, a group of 34 galaxies located in the constellation Ursa Major.[23] The distance from the Earth to the group is approximately 11.7 Mly (3.6 Mpc), making this one of the closest groups to the Local Group, which contains the Milky Way.[23]

M81 is gravitationally interacting with Messier 82. The interactions have stripped some hydrogen gas away from the galaxies, leading to the formation of filamentary gas structures in the group. Moreover, the interactions have also caused some interstellar gas to fall into the centers of Messier 82, which has led to strong starburst activity (or the formation of many stars) within the centers of this galaxy." Wikipedia

Since I've had the SBIG camera there seams to be one problem or another everytime I am out under the stars. Each night the problem is something different, this night was just another of those. The photo was taken during the early morning hours of March 11, 2010, the first clear night in a very long time. The moon set after 11:00pm and I was ready to image at 12:10am. There was a very light low fog that eventually turned to frost. I shot a little over 3 hours of LRGB data and planned to switch over to H alpha for another hour. My dew prevention system had been over loaded about 1/2 way through the LRGB. I didn't notice until my last blue filtered shot. The guide scope had frosted up and I couldn't guide any longer. I ended up loosing all but 68 minutes of exposures due to the frost build up. Inspite of that the photo truned out pretty well. Soon I will put all of the problems behind me, practice makes better.

Photo Details:
Location: West of Columbia, MO
Date: 3/11/11
Telescope: William Optics FLT 110 with a W/O Reducer/Flattener Type IV system @f5.6
Camera: SBIG ST8300M with SBIG 5 position filter wheel
Filters: Baader - Luminacne, Red, Green and Blue
Mount: Celestron CGE Guided
Software: Captured with CCDSoft. Processed with CCDStack, PixInisght LE, Photoshop CS3