M97
NGC 3587
Properties
Position & Identifiers
Visibility
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Eyepiece View
M97 · 3.6′ · N up, E left
Filter Response Guide
Central Star
Surface Brightness & Observing Difficulty
Survey Image
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About M97
Description
The Owl Nebula is a large planetary nebula in Ursa Major, about 2,030 light-years from Earth. It gets its name from two dark circular regions in its disk that resemble the eyes of an owl. The nebula spans about 1.8 light-years across and is about 8,000 years old. Its central star is a white dwarf with a temperature of about 123,000 K.
Observing Tips
Located about 2.3 degrees southeast of Merak (Beta Ursae Majoris), the bottom-right star of the Big Dipper's bowl. In binoculars it appears as a very faint, round patch. A 4-inch telescope at 80-100x shows a circular, ghostly gray-green disk. The two dark 'owl eyes' require 8 inches or more and good conditions. An OIII filter dramatically enhances the nebula against the sky. The galaxy M108 lies just 48 arcminutes to the northwest. Best observed from February through June.
History
Discovered by Pierre Mechain on February 16, 1781. Charles Messier cataloged it on March 24, 1781. The 'Owl' name was coined by Lord Rosse in the 1840s, who sketched the two dark spots that give it its distinctive face-like appearance.
Fun Facts
The Owl Nebula contains about 0.15 solar masses of gas — about 150 times the mass of Jupiter. The two dark 'eyes' are cylindrical tubes of lower-density gas aligned roughly toward the observer, allowing us to see through the nebula to the darker space beyond. M97 and M108 form a lovely pair in a wide-field eyepiece — a planetary nebula and a galaxy side by side.