The Bear and the Hunter

My first target this fine clear night was the first of a pair of galaxies in Ursa Major. This is M81, or Bode's Galaxy.

M81 Bode's Galaxy

This is the second of the pair of galaxies in Ursa Major, This is a starburst galaxy, rich in newly forming stars,

M82 The Cigar Galaxy

Wikipedia: Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82) is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. A member of the M81 Group, it is about five times more luminous than the whole Milky Way and has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy's centre.] The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81. As the closest starburst galaxy to Earth, M82 is the prototypical example of this galaxy type.

You just have to take a pic of M42 this time of year! It is a difficult object since the centre (where the trapezium is) is so bright that it gets blown out when trying to show the fainter edges. Hence the two images here, one to show the Trapezium.

M42 The Great Nebula in Orion

 Wikipedia: The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

The Trapezium in the middle of M42

Wikipedia: The Orion Nebula contains a very young open cluster, known as the Trapezium due to the asterism of its primary four stars. Two of these can be resolved into their component binary systems on nights with good seeing, giving a total of six stars. The stars of the Trapezium, along with many other stars, are still in their early years. The Trapezium is a component of the much larger Orion Nebula Cluster, an association of about 2,800 stars within a diameter of 20 light years.

The Horsehead Nebula was revisited. I have managed to get over an hour of data, mostly  240s @ ISO 1600. So, the noise level is reduced quite a bit

Horsehead Nebula in Orion

Wikipedia: The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. It appears within the southern region of the dense dust cloud known as Lynds 1630, along the edge of the much larger, active star-forming H II region called IC 434.
The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 422 parsecs or 1375 light years from Earth. It is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of its resemblance to a horse's head.

The glare from Alnitak (the most eastwards of the three stars in Orion's Belt) can be seen on the left of the image.