From Wikipedia:
"The Owl Nebula (also known as
Messier 97, M97 or NGC 3587) is a starburst ("planetary") nebula approximately 2,030 light years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. The estimated age of the Owl Nebula is about 8,000 years. It is approximately circular in cross-section with faint internal structure. It was formed from the outflow of material from the stellar wind of the central star as it evolved along the asymptotic giant branch. The nebula is arranged in three concentric shells/envelopes, with the outermost shell being about 20–30% larger than the inner shell. A mildly owl-like appearance of the nebula is the result of an inner shell that is not circularly symmetric, but instead forms a barrel-like structure aligned at an angle of 45° to the line of sight.
I shot this
together with the Surfboard Galaxy, but decided this one needed a closeup with just the narrowband data going into the owl. It took a bit of work to get the OIII core and halo in the right range. I think the outer halo kind of looks like wings when viewed from this orientation.
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