Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula - M108 & M97 (Massimo Di Fusco)

Surfboard Galaxy and Owl Nebula - M108 & M97

This is the picture I had in mind when I started planning it in mid-October. It is a 2 panels mosaic, the upper one with the M108 galaxy and the lower one with the M97 planetary nebula. These two deep sky objects, in fact, are very close in perspective and it is very common to see them together in the same image.

Messier 97 (M97), also known as the Owl Nebula or NGC 3587, is a famous planetary nebula located in Ursa Major constellation at a distance of 2030 light years from Earth. It occupies an apparent area 3,4 by 3,3 arc minutes, which corresponds to a spatial diameter of 1,82 light years and it was named the Owl Nebula because of its appearance in larger telescopes, which reveal two dark patches that look like the eyes of an owl.
M97 was discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain on February 16, 1781. Méchain reported the discovery to his friend and colleague Charles Messier, who added the nebula to his catalogue.

M 108 (also known as Messier 108, NGC 3556 or also with the suggestive name of Surfboard Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 45 million light years away, in the constellation Ursa Major, discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 who described it as a nebula in the vicinity of β Ursae Majoris. It was also observed by Charles Messier, who determined its location. However, this together with other objects was never included in the catalog he edited, since at the time of his observation and measurement it had already been published; the addition was made only in 1953, following the inclusion of objects observed by Messier but never included in the catalogue.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6695536
PixInsight job	9Y4964BCHGDWSH8LQGYOZHENC8U5WTD7
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	11h13m05s.31
RA (top/left)	11h17m46s.80
RA (top/right)	11h08m27s.16
RA (bottom/right)	11h08m33s.63
RA (bottom/left)	11h17m33s.62

Dec (center)	+55°19′22″.8
Dec (top/left)	+55°57′16″.8
Dec (top/right)	+55°57′55″.1
Dec (bottom/right)	+54°40′42″.8
Dec (bottom/left)	+54°40′20″.4

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