M97 the Owl Nebula and M108

[Laurin Dave]

Captured last night, planetary nebula Messier 97 the Owl Nebula and Messier 108 a barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. 

The Owl planetary nebula is located approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. 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.

The nebula is approximately 8,000 years old. It is approximately circular in cross-section with a little visible internal structure. It was formed from the outflow of material from the stellar wind of the central star as it evolved along the asymptotic giant branch. The nebula is arranged in three concentric shells, with the outermost shell being about 20–30% larger than the inner shell. The owl-like appearance of the nebula is the result of an inner shell that is not circularly symmetric, but instead forms a barrel-like structure aligned at an angle of 45° to the line of sight. The nebula holds about 0.13 solar masses of matter, including hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur. Its outer radius is around 0.91 light years and it is expanding with velocities in the range of 27–39 km/s into the surrounding interstellar medium.

Messier 108 is a barred spiral galaxy also in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in1781 or 1782. From the perspective of the Earth, this galaxy is seen almost edge-on. This galaxy is an isolated member of the Ursa Major Cluster of galaxies in the Virgo supercluster and is about 45million light years away. It has a morphological classification of type SBbc, a barred spiral galaxy with somewhat loosely wound arms.  

1.5hrs each RGB and 2 hrs Lum through Esprit150/SX46 plus 3hrs Oiii and 2hrs Ha through Esprit100/ASI1600. Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop.. the outer shell is just starting to show.

Thanks for looking 

Dave

 

[geeklee]

@Laurin Dave That is outstanding - both main targets look stunning. 

What a treat to view at 1:1 - is there really so many extra faint fuzzies that I'm losing count or is it just my poor interpretation?  Do I also spy a tiny spiral galaxy right at the bottom, left side?

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by geeklee

[Laurin Dave]

3 minutes ago, geeklee said:

@Laurin Dave That is outstanding - both main targets look stunning. 

What a treat to view at 1:1 - is there really so many extra faint fuzzies that I'm losing count or is it just my poor interpretation?  Do I also spy a tiny spiral galaxy right at the bottom, left side?

 

Thank you … Pixinsight says 57 PGC galaxies..  and that's not all of them... 

[MarkAR]

Lovely combination, superb image.

[John Nodding]

Brilliant!! 👍

 

Noddy