M97-M108 & many more

This is my latest version of M97 & M108, two different types of Messier objects in one field of view. M97 (also known as the Owl Nebula or NGC 3587) is a planetary nebula located 2000 light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. The nebula appears blue due the presence of oxygen gas, however, there is some hydrogen around the rim appearing red in color. The nebula formed approximately 8,000 years ago when the central star began to blow its outer layers away and is currently 2 light-years in diameter. Interestingly, a faint outer halo of oxygen was detected in 1991 and I managed to capture it in this image thanks to collecting over three hours of OIII data.

​M108 (also known as the Surfboard galaxy or NGC 3556) is located approximately 46 million light-years away. At 75 degrees inclination to our line of sight, it is almost edge-on and resembles a Surfboard to some people through a telescope. It has thick dust lanes throughout the disk with blue star clusters and pink Ha regions in the outer arms. I collected over four hours of Ha data which brought out many of these pink regions.

In addition to these main objects, there are many other galaxies in this image. Using PixInsight's annotation feature I counted 120 identified galaxies but there are probably more - many of the 'dots' are not stars but galaxies.

Processing was straightforward except I only blended the Ha data into M108 and the OIII into M97 and only to get the faint outer rim. The dense portion on M97 is straight RGB as it gives the best definition and color in my opinion.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/4lx6lo/?nc=collection&nce=712

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M97-M108 & many more 
Dates: 12-30-24, 1-1-25, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-23

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha; ZWO R, G, B, UV
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 54 x 300, OIII 37 x 300, R 43 x 90, G 42 x 90, B 45 x 90 (10h 50')
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -20 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Stretching.

https://www.instagram.com/astroquest1/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1