This is my first good image (May 2022) of two spectacular objects in the Northern sky. The Owl Nebula (Messier 97) is relatively near to us, inside the Milky Way, while the Surfboard Galaxy (Messier 108) is vastly further away.
This image of M97 and M108 was captured at Lac Teeples on the nights of April 30 (no filter) and May 7 (with Tri-band filter), 2022. Equipment used includes the RASA11 telescope, the CEM70 mount, and the ZWO ASI-6200 camera. Roughly 90 images of 1 minute were captured using the ZWO tri-filter and a similar number of images without this filter. The tri-filter helped in bringing out the colour, mainly of the Surfboard galaxy because the Owl emission doesn't seem to be at the right wavelengths for the ZWO filter.
The Owl is a “planetary” nebula, approximately 2500 light years away from us. The light we see is emission from an ionized gas shell ejected from an aging red giant star. The term “planetary” is a misnomer.
The Owl was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 who promptly informed Charles Messier to get it into the famous Messier Catalogue. It was later observed by the Earl of Rosse in 1848 using his giant telescope and he drew the image below which looks like an owl’s head. It has been known as the Owl Nebula ever since.
M97 by Lord Rosse, public domain. Image from Wikipedia.
The Surfboard Galaxy is also quite impressive. It was also discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. It is inclined by roughly 75 degrees to us so we can’t see the overall structure but it is not a thin needle either. It is believed to be a barred spiral galaxy 29 million light-years away from us.
Close-up images of the two objects are given below, cropped from the first image.
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