My Own Private Hubble !!!

Almost 3 years ago, i had just then bought and assembled my new toy ( link ).  After mostly using it for visual astronomy, now, i have been connecting my camera to the telescope and taking deep sky astro photos. After months of trying and doing lot of mistakes, I can now say that I have started feeling very comfortable with my telescope.

Light Year:
Definitely, i am not going to bug you with complex astronomy terms. But, if you prefer to learn only one thing, it should be the "Light Year".  It is a very funny word. Because it has "year", you may think it denotes "time". Actually, it indicates the distance. It is the distance someone would travel if they travel at the speed of light for an year.
1 Light Year = 6 trillion miles or 10 trillion kilo meters (1 trillion has 12 0s ).

In a very different way, it denotes time also. Through my telescope, when I look at a star or galaxy 2 million light years away, that means light has traveled 2 million years before reaching my telescope and hitting my retina !!! It also means, I am looking at the galaxy how it was 2 million years ago. There is no guarantee it is still there today !!! Basically, I am looking back in time. Mind boggling fact !!! :)

Presenting, photos taken with my own private Hubble.

Open Cluster in the constellation, Perseus.
There are 2 "Open Clusters" in Perseus, known as the Double Cluster. This is one of them.
Clusters are groups of stars that are gravitationally bound to each other.
Distance: 7500 Light Years. f/8, 10 secs, ISO 3200.

Andromeda Galaxy.
The closest neighbor to our own MilkWay galaxy. Astronomers have confirmed that Andromeda and
MilkyWay are rushing towards each other. In about 4 billion years from now, both the galaxies are expected to
merge and become a single galaxy. No clue on what will happen to our Solar System but the merged galaxy
may be called "Milkomeda Galaxy" :)
Distance: 2.5 Million Light Years. f/8, 15 secs, ISO 3200.

The great "Orion Nebula", in the constellation, Orion.
Distance: 1,344 Light Years. f/8, 30 secs, ISO 800.

Globular Cluster, M3 in the constellation, Canes Venatici.
Distance: 33,900 Light Years. f/8, 20 secs, ISO 800.

M 81 Galaxy in the constellation, Ursa Major.
Distance: 11.8 Million Light Years. f/8, 30 secs, ISO 800.

M82 Galaxy (aka Cigar Galaxy) in the constellation, Ursa Major.
From our perspective on earth, we are looking at the this galaxy edge-on, hence the Cigar look.
Distance: 12.4 million Light Years. f/8, 30 secs, ISO 800.

Stars, Mizar and Alcor in the constellation, Ursa Major.
In Indian mythology, the constellation Ursa Major is known as "Subtha Rishi" (seven saints).
Mizar (bigger & brighter in the foto) and Alcor (second brightest) are the saint "Vashishta" and his wife "Arundhathi". 
During Indian weddings, the bride and the groom are asked to look in the direction of these 2 stars and blessed
to be as close as Vashishta and Arundhathi. Astronomers have confirmed that Alcor is a binary
(2 stars) system. I think, the 3rd star is Vashista's second wife ;)
Distance: Mizar - 82.8 Light years, Alcor - 81.7 Ligh Years. f/8, 20 secs, ISO 1600.

With these photos, I am giving myself a grade of C-. I have a long way to go in improving the quality of these photos. I am not worried. I have a lifetime ahead :) I bought my first telescope (no tracking, completely manual) in 2002. In the last 13 years the amateur astronomy hobby has made multiple "giant leaps", thanks to the advances in technology and the innovations of the telescope manufacturers. I took all these photos during a single night (a span of 1.5 hours) on March 7. It was simply not possible for an amateur to do this in 2002. 

Here is my Hubble.

This is my visual setup. Do you see a small "camera like" thingy attached to the top of the telescope? That thingy does an amazing job of aligning the telescope. It moves the telescope to point to 3 different areas of the sky and takes a photo of each area. It knows the time zone i am in and the latitude of San Diego. Practically, it knows what stars should be up there in the San Diego night sky on that day at that time. Based on this information and the location of the stars in the photos it took, it creates a model of the night sky for the telescope. When i select to view the Andromeda Galaxy, the telescope knows where it is in the sky and simply moves the telescope and positions Andromeda at the center of the eyepiece.

Once i am done with the visual observations, i remove the eyepiece and connect my camera to the telescope. The telescope moves on its own and compensates for the earth's rotation, keeping the deep sky object at the center. This allows me to take long exposure shots. My telescope's focal length is 1625 mm.
Another way to look at this is, I have a 1625 mm lens to attach to my camera ;)