The Owl Nebula and M108
Orion 8" f/4 Astrograph

 

            
 One of the
            most spectacular unlikely pairings in the northern sky, the turquoise
            Owl Nebula - M97 floats in the bottom of this 2.5 degree field,
            and the edge on bright galaxy M108 at the top. In between the
            two is a 7.5 magnitude F2 Star. The Owl is in our Milky Way galaxy
            and is only a few light years in diameter, the remains of a dead
            star. it is surrounded in this field by dozens of very faint
            galaxies, some of which I have labeled in the bottom close up.
            The magnitude limit is approximately 18 for this image, since
            the faintest galaxies in Megastar are 17.5 and are faintly recorded
            here.

            
M108 is a moderately
            large object spanning 9 arc minutes and recording a nice set
            of complex internal dust lanes. It is an Sb spiral and is inclined
            only 6 degrees from our line of sight.



            
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Optics:  8" f/4 Newtonian Astrograph w/Baader MPCC Coma Corrector
Platform:  Home made GEM
Camera:  Hutech Modified Canon XTi @ ISO800
Exposure:  6 x 5m
Location:  Happy Jack, Arizona
Elevation:  6800 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  6/10, Transparency 6/10
Outside Temperature:  35F
Processing Tools:  Photoshop CS2, Images Plus 3.82
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