M81 & M82 are also known as Bodes Galaxy's, named for the Johan Bode who discovered them in 1774. Later added to Messier's famous catalog as #'s 81 and 82. M81 is the sprial in the center, M82 likely colided with M81 in the distant past. NGC 2976 is the small irregular galaxy near the bottom left and NGC 3077 is right on the upper edge of the frame. All of these are a little north of the bowl of the big dipper. There are several much dimmer galaxies in this photo if you look closely.

This photo was taken on April 8, 2008 and is the first serious try with my new Canon Rebel XT modified by Hap Griffin. For this photo I've also added a William Optics 0.80 Focal Reducer and a IDAS Light Pollution Suppression Filter to the image train. Also new.

Reprocessed on March 7, 2009 using Deep Sky Stacker, PixInsight LE and Photoshop CS3. Addeed Flats and Bias Frames.

Details:
Camera: Canon Rebel XT - Hap Griffin Modified.
Telescope: William Optics 80mm Fluorite Doublet APO. William Optics 0.80 Reducer/Flatener type II. IDAS LPS Filter.
Mount: Celestron CGE - uguided exposures
Exposures: 25 x 3 minutes, 14 darks (the flats weren't properly aligned with the lights as the camera twisted in the mount when I changed the exposure for the flats)
Processing: Stacked and Dark subtracted in AIP4WIN v2.2. Stretched and color blananced in PixInsight LE. Noise reduction and image correction in Photoshope Elements 3.0