Before setting up for a Lagoon Nebula imaging night, I captured a barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major with the RCOS and Apogee U16M camera. The galaxy is M109 which sits right next to bright star Gamma Ursa Majoris at 2nd magnitude. The blue-white star Phecda, although out of the field, cast a blue spray of rays over the galaxy giving the image a heavenly look. I shot the luminance (B&W) frames last month (June, 2010) and finished it with color data this trip (total LRGB exposure ~ 4 hours).
http://www.burkesobservatory.com/showPic.php?id=68&&cls=G&PHPSESSID=ed8a8c0a615dc64821fea0ea93b02dc6 – M109 description
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M109text.html – Gendler details on M109