Astronomy photos from the Dwarf 3 telescope

I went out at 4 AM to try and capture a new comet on the Eastern horizon. It was coming into view just ahead of the rising Sun. In my first image, the telescope had not been correctly aligned and the stars were trailing somewhat. When I moved the tripod to a diiferent location in order realigfn it and to avoid a tree, the telescope fell off of the tripod to the gravel pad I was standing on. A drop of about 5 feet and a horrible noise to hear. The telescope has a few dings on the base where it contacted the gravel but it remained on and after reconnecting it to the tripod I was able to continue and capture a second cleaner image of the comet without any stars trailing. The scope as of now, appears to be AOK which is a great relief. Kudoes to the design team for a tough machine. Here is one additional image with the stars removed.

Hubble image of M94

This galaxy was suggested to me by the telescope and I don't really understand why. It is a nondescript galaxy that has little to learn about in its Wikipedia page. NGC 4559 (also known as Caldwell 36) is an intermediate spiral galaxy with a weak inner ring structure in the constellation Coma Berenices.

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. It is the second-largest member of the M81 Group. It is about five times more luminous than the Milky Way and its central region is about one hundred times more luminous. M82 is being physically affected by its larger neighbor, the spiral M81 seen directly below "The Cigar". Tidal forces caused by gravity have deformed M82, a process that started about 100 million years ago. This interaction has caused star formation to increase tenfold compared to "normal" galaxies.

On a wispy cloudy night, I tried to capture a barred spiral. Need fewer clouds, more images and better post processing skills. Wikipedia says it should look like this: By Credit Line and Copyright Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona - File:N1530s.jpg

First night out in a long while between health and weather. Returned to M 51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. Wikipedia says - What later became known as the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered on October 13, 1773, by Charles Messier while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier's catalogue as M51.[13] William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, employing a 72-inch (1.8 m) reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland, found that the Whirlpool possessed a spiral structure, the first "nebula" to be known to have one.[14] These "spiral nebulae" were not recognized as galaxies until Edwin Hubble was able to observe Cepheid variables in some of these spiral nebulae, which provided evidence that they were so far away that they must be entirely separate galaxies.[15] The advent of radio astronomy and subsequent radio images of M51 unequivocally demonstrated that the Whirlpool and its companion galaxy are indeed interacting.