M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo! (AstroDarks)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: M 108 · M 97 · NGC 3556 · NGC 3587 · Owl Nebula

M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo!, AstroDarks

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M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo!

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M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo!

Presenting a surfboard and an Owl with a Halo! Here's M97, the Owl Nebula and M108 the Surfboard Galaxy imaged from my Bortle 7 backyard!

As I was processing this image, I was reminded that widefield images shot during galaxy season can serve as stratified time capsules of our universe. This image contains objects at three distinct tiers of distance from us; hence, the image captures three distinct periods of the past in our local universe.

The foreground of the image is occupied by the Owl Nebula (M97). As we look at this planetary nebula, we are gazing about 2,000 years into the past.

The middle ground of the image is occupied by the Surfboard Galaxy (M108). This barred spiral galaxy is a member of the Ursa Major Cluster. We are seeing it as it looked about 46 million years ago.

Scattered around the background of the image are hundreds of dim galaxies. These vary in distance from us, but the galaxy just below and to the left of the Owl is typical. This galaxy is PGC 34279. When we look at it, we are looking 485 million years into the past.

Many planetary nebulae have faint halos around their bright cores, but they're often too dim to show up in most images. It takes many hours of exposure with amateur telescopes to make these halos visible. According to Balick et al., a pulse of material is ejected, forming an expanding bubble that slows down as it encounters interstellar medium, leading to the buildup of gas at the bubble's edge, creating a bright rim. These halos are usually round. There's a noticeable gap in the halo near the 2 o'clock position, which seems to extend from an enriched projection within the core's edge.

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9909386
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo!

M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo!

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M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo!

M97 and M108 - A surfboard and an Owl with a Halo!

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