Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 108  ·  M 97  ·  NGC 3556  ·  NGC 3587  ·  Owl Nebula
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The Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula, axlecrusher
The Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula
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The Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula, axlecrusher
The Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

The Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula

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Description

The Surfboard Galaxy (M108) and Owl Nebula (M97).

The galaxy is 45.98 million light years away and the Owl Nebula is planetary nebula 2600 light years away. The Owl Nebula is 0.91 light years (5349549242536 miles) across. The star in the center of the Owl Nebula is condensing into a white dwarf, it is 55 - 60% the mass of the sun, and is 14 to 148 times more luminous.

I was inspired by Chuck's Astrophotography to capture this. I captured this over 3 nights, using a OSC camera to capture RGB and hydrogen alpha. For the H-alpha I used the red channel of the Optolong L-eNhance filter and overlaid it on the RGB image.

I stacked the subs in DSS, a unique group for each imaging session, producing a unique image for each session. I processed the images in using Star Tools. I combined the processed images in Affinity Photo using average mixing mode. The grayscale H-alpha image was pasted into the red component of a layer which was mixed using the add, to the RGB layer.

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The Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula, axlecrusher