Astrophotography by Keith B. Quattrocchi

To view the APOD version (May 15, 2009), please click here to be redirected.
                
M97: Owl Nebula 
Planetary Nebula in Ursa Major
Narrow Band Image(Modified)
APOD:  May 15, 2009

Copyright 2009
Keith B Quattrocchi

           
Image Acquisition Information                      
 
Telescope: 16" RCOS Richey Chretien Telescope (ion milled at 6/9) 
Camera: SBIG STL-6303 M
Guiding: SBIG AOL,  Astrodon  MOAG AOG (SBIG 237 with FLR)
Filters: Astrodon L, Ha, SII, OIII
Mount: Software Bisque Paramount ME
Acquisition Programs:   The Sky,CCDAutopliot III, CCD Soft. 
Processing Programs: CCDStack, Maxim DL, Photoshop
Date: March 7, 2008 - April 1, 2009                              
Time: 18x20 min ( 6 hours) each for each of L, Ha, SII and OIII:
Total of 24 hours imaging time.                              
Processing:  CCD Stack and PhotoShop CS/3
 
Image Infornmation:  This is a NB image with a minimal blending of a luminance image in order to bring out some of the small secondary galaxies and the faint nebula to the right of the owl nebula.  The image represents a total of 24 hours of data from 4 filters.  The nebula was discovered in 1781, is believed to have formed about 6,000 years ago and is about 2000 light years from the earth.  From a structural perspective it is felt to be complex and astronomers have not been able to explain its shape and contours. 

Comments:  The Narrow Band image was processed using CCDStack, producing a Narrow Band  image (Hubble Palatte).  The Narrow Band image was created by equally weighting the SII, Ha and OIII images and assembling in CCDStack.  The Luminance data was produced in CCDStack which was lightly blended into the NB image using layers (normal mode) in Photoshop CS/3, bringing out the faint emission nebula and small secondary galaxies.  The  Further data stretching, high pass filtering and background smoothing was performed with Adobe Photoshop CS/3.