The Owl Nebula and Surfboard Galaxy

The Owl Nebula (also known Messier 97) is a planetary nebula located approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. When William Parsons observed the nebula in 1848, his hand-drawn illustration resembled an owl’s head. It has been known as the Owl Nebula ever since. The nebula is approximately 8,000 years old. It is approximately circular in cross-section with a little visible internal structure. The nebula is arranged in three concentric shells, with the outermost shell being about 20–30% larger than the inner shell. The owl-like appearance of the nebula is the result of an inner shell that is not circularly symmetric, but instead forms a barrel-like structure aligned at an angle of 45° to the line of sight.

Galaxies M81 and M82

Here are two nearby galaxies taken from my back yard with my new astrograph telescope. M81 is face-on and its neighbor M82 is edge-on. Dust clouds in the latter are especially noticeable.

The Whirlpool Galaxy

M51, better known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is a magnificent face-on spiral galaxy. The Whirlpool Galaxy is interacting with a smaller companion, NGC 5195, a dwarf galaxy connected to its larger neighbour by a tidal bridge of dust. The bridge is visible in images of the pair silhouetted against the central region of the smaller galaxy. It lies at an approximate distance of 35 million light years from Earth.

The Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula is a large spherical H II region (circular in appearance) located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula’s matter.

The Crab Nebula

M1, the Crab Nebula, is the remnant of the spectacular supernova of 1054.

The Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula M42 is the most spectacular deep-sky object visible through almost any telescope. Other than the moon, there is no other object in the night sky that reveals as much detail as M42. It is visible to the naked eye as the fuzzy central star in Orion’s sword.