The Owl Nebula is a “planetary” nebula about 2,000 light years away and about 8,000 years old. Despite it’s name, the nebula has nothing to do with planets but due to its circular nature early astronomers thought it was a gas planet. The central star of the nebula is shedding its outer layers of hydrogen […]
Messier 97 – The Owl Nebula
Messier 97 is a planetary nebula about 2,000 light years away. Called the Owl Nebula (because of the two dark patches that look like eyes), the greens of oxygen and reds of hydrogen are being illuminated by the star in the centre as it goes through it’s final days before becoming a white dwarf. In […]
Messier 97
M97 & M108 Widefield
Early Astrophotography: Messier 97
M97: An early attempt at H-Alpha Integration With a New Moon last night, I got the chance to revisit the Owl Nebula from 2 weeks ago. By taking the Hydrogen Alpha pics and merging them with a full colour RGB image, I get a higher contrast image showing more detail of this nebula just over […]