M 97 in Ursa Major 26th March 2020 @ 21:53 UT
The Owl Nebula (M 97) lives up to its name. Two big eyes stare back at you.
Image: 15 seconds x 116 frames (1740 seconds total), gain 6584, bin 2x2, Raw 14, black level 99, camera temperature 9.5 deg C, 1 dark. Stacked in SharpCap Pro 3.2.6248.0. The image was stacked and adjusted in SharpCap. The image was scaled down and cropped in GIMP.
While live viewing I noticed that the North and South 'poles' of the nebula were red. This is lost a little in the live view (on my monitor) so I boosted the colour and sharpened to bring out more what I saw live.
Equipment: Celestron CPC-800 at F5.9, Alt-Az mount, Altair Astro Hypercam 294C Pro Cooled (fan), Celestron Focuser, CPWI controlled remotely via Microsoft RDP and ASCOM.
Astrometry: M 97 is 1,700 light years distant.
Charles Messier added M 97 in 1781.
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