Martin Germano created this image of the Owl Nwbula M97 with a 14.5" f/5 Newtonian stopped to f/6 (12"), exposed 100 minutes on hypered Tech Pan 2415. The Owl is a fairly bright (12.0 photographic magnitude) and large (2.8 minutes) Planetary Nebula in Ursa Major. Supposedly one of the faintest of the Messier objects, Martin has always found this an easy object in a dark sky, because it is definitely brighter visually. This image is a Picture Window Pro 2.5 blend of the above 100 minute image and a 45 minute image from 1992; compare the 1992 image below:
Last Modification: 29 January 2003