M97 - Owl Nebula

About this image






This distinctive planetary nebula, so strongly
reminiscent of the face of an owl, is a real challenge for small telescopes
because its faint light is spread over an area of roughly five times the size of
Jupiter’s apparent disk. Thus to see the Owl Nebula well, one needs to be under
a dark sky. This nebula is one of the fainter objects in Messier's catalog. Two
small galaxies are also visible in the image, PGC 34279 on the left part is
partially covered from a star, and PGC 2490291 on the right, an edge on spiral
galaxy.

Technical Details








Optics


Vixen VC200L @
f/6.4



Mount
HEQ5 synscan Pro

Guiding
ST-237 guide chip of SBIG
ST2000XM



Camera
SBIG ST2000XM

Filter Wheel
SBIG CFW9



Filters
Baader LRGB

CCD Temperature
-15 degrees Celsius

Constellation
Ursa Major



Date
09 Mar, 2013



Location
Kifisia, Attica,
Greece



Exposure


Lum : 30 min (30x1 min)
Red : 30
min (15x2 min)
Green : 30 min (15x2 min)
Blue : 30 min (15x2 min)

Binning: 1x1(L,R,G,

Total exposure 2 hours



Software
CCDsoft, CCDstack, Photoshop