Telescopes need to track across the sky to compensate for the Earth's rotation. However, this is often not enough as irregularities in the telescope drive systems can cause tracking errors.

So for long exposures telescopes also have to be guided (nowadays by a computer) to compensate for this. Left image guided, right image unguided.

@evilscientistca It's the 1st time I perceive some depth in such a photo, because of the star in front of the galaxy.
@evilscientistca Also, the polar axis not precisely pointing to the celestial pole can cause this.