M97- The Owl Nebula

[StarGeezer]

Managed to get my first sighting of the Owl Nebula tonight. A fairly faint circle of nebulosity, but a decent size so not too difficult to find.

Anyway, I decided to try and get in for a closer look in the hope of sighting the 'eyes'.... This proved to be an unsuccessful venture. Moved up to x96 and x120 in the hope bringing out more detail but neither served to really improve things or get a visual on one of the eyes.

So, with my failure in mind, I'd like to know if this is a possible aim through my 8" reflector or is this primarily a target for the larger apeture scopes? Is it worth further increasing the mag? I did have a bash at x240 but the least said about that the better.

Anyway, if anyone has any observing experiances they'd like to share regarding this I'd be glad of any hints and tips.

[Talitha]

Congratulations on your first Owl observation!

My skies are pretty dark and I've never been able to see the eyes either (8" f/10 SCT). If more aperture's needed though, maybe this is the excuse we've been waiting for to get a bigger scope.

[StarGeezer]

Congratulations on your first Owl observation!

My skies are pretty dark and I've never been able to see the eyes either (8" f/10 SCT). If more aperture's needed though, maybe this is the excuse we've been waiting for to get a bigger scope.

Well, that's the excuse sorted, now I just have to find the cash...

[Johnboy]

Hi

I spotted the Owl for the first time a few nights ago using a 12" reflector and an OIII filter. I viewed at 38x and 76x. The Nebula

stood out quite well, but even so I could only see a slight hint of one of the eyes. I normally view from my back garden which is fairly light polluted and I didn't have much time for my eyes to become 'dark adapted', which obviously didn't help, but possibly the next time I try I'll have better luck with the eyes.

Regards.

John

[John]

Hi

I spotted the Owl for the first time a few nights ago using a 12" reflector and an OIII filter. I viewed at 38x and 76x. The Nebula

stood out quite well, but even so I could only see a slight hint of one of the eyes. I normally view from my back garden which is fairly light polluted and I didn't have much time for my eyes to become 'dark adapted', which obviously didn't help, but possibly the next time I try I'll have better luck with the eyes.

Regards.

John

Thats my experience though my 12" dobsonian. I'll try again on a really dark night but I've got a feeling that an extra couple of inches of aperture would help a lot as well !.

John

[Talitha]

Forgot to mention.. I also used an O-III (doesn't make much of a difference with only 8" though, does it. :)).

[StarGeezer]

Looks like its a hard enough job finding the eyes with 12" of aperture so its looking like 8" really isn't going to cut it. Not ready to admit defeat yet though and to be honest I proably never will be, so I guess I'll have to keep trying.

[Doc]

I'm still to see this one.

I've tried numerous times but I have no filters. But surely it's visible in a 16" scope.

[acey]

This thread piqued my curiosity because I thought I'd seen the eyes - but I looked at M97 last night with a 12-inch and UHC from a mag 6 site and couldn't see them. One was definitely there and I could convince myself of the other, but if I hadn't known it was called the Owl I wouldn't have guessed any resemblance. What struck me more was an overall filamentary appearance, with lots of tendrils of varying brightness, some of which wrap round the larger and more prominent "eye". I wonder when the nickname was first coined, and what sort of aperture was used. More than 12", I'm sure.

Andrew

[John]

.....I wonder when the nickname was first coined, and what sort of aperture was used. More than 12", I'm sure.....

It's a wonder that all DSO's are not all called "The fuzzy blob" nebula or some variation of that !.

John

[Northern Soul man]

Hi, I was looking for the Owl on Sunday night, living in the West Midlands, I suffer with light pollution - I can just make out M1 using averted vision using a 12" Revelation Dob, wondering if the Owl is fainter than M1, checked and re - checked the position, think I will have to get the lx90 out and align and check the exact position just to verify - what you know - cloud and Luna due for the rest of the week !!! any advice would be grateful - Many Thanks Paul...

[acey]

Owl has lower total magnitude than Crab but is smaller - I don't have figures for surface brightness but would have thought the two are comparable. Certainly, though, if M1 is an averted vision object in your scope under the conditions you face then you should expect Owl to be at least as difficult. A nebula filter would certainly make things a lot easier.

Andrew

[MikeD]

but if I hadn't known it was called the Owl I wouldn't have guessed any resemblance. I wonder when the nickname was first coined

Andrew

I remember seeing this drawing of M97.

Drawing of the Owl Nebula by William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse. He comments his observations of March 11, 1848:

"Two stars considerably apart in the central region: dark penumbra around each spiral arrangements." (On many occasions only one star seen and spiral form doubtful.)

Looking through Lord Rosse's 6-foot telescope, Thomas Romney Robinson, a priest and friend of the Earl, remarked in 1848: "A most intricate group of spiral arcs disposed around two starry centers, looking like the visage of a monkey."

Don't know where the name "owl neb" comes from but after seeing the drawing it will forever be known as the smilie neb to me.

Mike.

[acey]

That's brilliant! Why isn't it called the Monkey Nebula?

I had a look in O'Meara's book on Messier Objects and he rates it as a challenging object for dark skies, though with his 4" at a mag 8 site in Hawaii he says the eyes can be "essentially inferred" - which was my experience with the 12" at a mag 6 site. Rosse was also the first to identify spiral arms of M51 using his 72-inch scope so I suppose anyone who can see the arms should manage the eyes. Not sure about those little pupils, though - photographs show no stars there.

Andrew

[Dave]

In a 24" Dobbo at 2,150 meters in Tenerife, the eyes are really prominent.

Oh, I'm not rubbing it in am I?

Dave

[John]

I've detected the Owl Neb with an 80mm scope and a UHC filter - no "eyes" of course, just a very, very faint pale disk. From my garden it's a tougher challenge than M1.

John