M97 & M108

 First of all this will be my 200th post and I just want to thank all those who are new and regular visitors to my blog.

               Despite being circumpolar for us in the UK and visually through the scope an easily detectable pair I have never imaged The very photogenic pair of M108 & M97.

We will start with M108 (Ngc3556). It seems At 46 million light years away, There is a lot going on with this Barred spiral galaxy.  Viewed nearly edge on from our perspective. Close examintion shows expanding shells of hydrogen gas giving rise to many star forming regions. Chandra X ray observatory also detects a number of X ray sources hinting of an intermediate sized black hole in the galaxies heart.

 

Moving now 10,000 times closer we move within our own galaxy to the aptly named OWL nebula on M97 (Ngc3587) Discovered in 1781 early drawings were likened to an owl and known as that since then. A wonderful example of a planetary nebula, An expanding shell of material thrown off from a dying star around 8000 years ago. The progenitor star is around 14th magnitude and easily visible in my 2 hour capture.

Unfortunatly there seems to be a little interference from the nearby star Merak producing some definatly unwated light rays across the image. Other than that I quite like it .......Twit Twooo........