Planetary Nebula M 97 (NGC 3587)

The Owl Nebula, Messier 97 (NGC 3587). This image was obtained using a brief 2-minute exposure through a narrow-band filter around H-alpha during twilight, so it is perhaps not up to the usual standards of
this site. The central star is visible, along with the two darker regions that gave the Owl its name. This structure likely tells us that this nebula has the barrel- or hourglass-like symmetry that has been revealed in many planetary nebulae. These data are from the 4-meter Mayall telescope of Kitt Peak National Observatory. This was from a 2048x2048 Tektronix CCD, showing a 7.15-arcminute region with te priginal pixels averaged 4x4 for better surface-brightness sensitivity.

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