The Whirlpool Galaxy.

Object: Messier 51 (NGC 5194 & 5195)
Type: Interacting Galaxies
Distance: 15 million light years
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Date: 08 May 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, VC200L
Subframes: 12 x 60 second, 2x2 binned. Unguided, no darks or flats.

A very windy evening and a long focal length meant shortish exposures to avoid trailing, and lack of experience and only the clunky Starlight Xpress processing software to work with at the time meant no darks or flats. I shot about 50 subs, but only the 12 were usable thanks to the wind blowing the 'scope around and blurring the images. This image is a reprocess using my recently-acquired Astroart 4 software, which allowed me to zap some residual trailing on the final stack with the nifty deconvolution filter, resulting in a half-decent image (click to enlarge).

Definitely one to revisit on a less windy night.