Owl Nebula

M97 Owl Nebula in Ursa Major

Technical Details Telescope: C11 Mount: MI-250 Camera: SBIG ST-10XME Filters: Astrodon HaLRGB Dates: March 16-18, 2007 Exposure: HaLRGB: Ha= 13x20 min L=19x6min, RGB=18x6min each for 692 minutes (11.5hrs) total at -25C Notes: This planetary nebula is about 2,600 light years distant. It is a small dim object, about 3.3 arc minutes across. Also cataloged as NGC3587. Discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. The nebulous looking area at about the 10 o'clock position of the Owl nebula is the galaxy PGC34279. The spiral galaxy at the 3 o'clock position of the owl is PGC2490291. The small galaxy at the 5 o'clock position of PGC2490291 is PGC2490640. There are several other background galaxies in the photo.