The OWL Nebula
The Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula located approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major.This object is known by the catalogue identifiers Messier Object 97 (M97) and NGC 3587. It was discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain on February 16, 1781 When William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse observed the nebula in 1848, his hand-drawn illustration resembled an owl's head. It has been known as the owl nebula ever since.
Below are 2 images from last night impromptu outing to HC. Myself Tony V, and Prabakhar (sp?) were in attendance. The sky was clear and cloud free but not perfect.
Tony was doing visual getting used to his new set up, a very nice Williams Optics 110mm refractor with great views all night of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and numerous double stars. Really nice to have someone doing visual.
My target was the Owl Nebula. Below are 2 views, one cropped and one full frame. I used the robo focus last night for the first time on this scope (Vixen VC200L) and it really made a difference in the stars. I'm amazed at how flat the field is on this scope and with a bit more tweaking I think this is going to be a great galaxy hunter soon.
Image details
7 x Luminace, 300 seconds
7 x Red, 150 seconds
7 x Green, 150 seconds
7 x Blue, 150 seconds
Full Frame
close up view 100% cropped
Annotated
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