Image of the "Owl Nebula" M97 (NGC 3587), by George Jacoby of the KPNO. The morphology pattern is less obvious than for other planetary nebulae. From the recent additions to George Jacoby's Planetary Nebula gallery.

The Owl Nebula, Messier 97. This image was obtained using 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.

Data by Bill Keel from the Lowell Observatory 1.1-meter telescope. From Bill Keel's image collection at the University of Alabama.

The Owl Nebula M97 as photographed with the KPNO 0.9-meter telescope.
Credit: AURA/NOAO/NSF

False-color composite image of the Owl Nebula M97, created from three sets of narrowband images taken at the 0.6-meter Burrell Schmidt telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in June 1991. The colors in the image correspond to oxygen [O III] in blue, nitrogen [N II] in green, and hydrogen [H-alpha] in red.
Credit: Karen Kwitter (Williams College), Ron Downes (STScI), You-Hua Chu (University of Illinois) and AURA/NOAO/NSF

Ron Murray and Debra Brown took this beautiful image of M97 on the occasion of their stay with the Kitt Peak Visitor Center's Advanced Observing Program. Also note some faint little background galaxies.

This image was obtained with the AOP's Meade 16in LX200 telescope operating at f/6.3 and SBIG ST8E CCD camera with color filter wheel. It is a composite of four exposures: Luminance = 42 minutes binned 1x1, Red = 10 min, Green = 10 min, and Blue = 20 min, binned 3x3 each. Thin haze hampered this image slightly. The effective exposure time in L is substantially less than 42 minutes due to the thin clouds. Image processing was done by Adam Block.
Credit: Ron Murray and Debra Brown/Adam Block/AURA/NOAO/NSF

Patricia Wallace and Blythe Guvenen obtained this image of M97 from the Kitt Peak Visitor Center's Advanced Observing Program. This image was taken with the 20inch RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.1 on Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount, and SBIG STL-6303 CCD camera with color filter wheel. LRGB color production was used to create this image. Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue each exposed 30 minutes and binned 2x2.

Last Modification: November 27, 2016