M97 - The Owl Nebula

Tue May 21 2024

I’ve been really struggling with my equipment for the last couple of months and have spent all of my clear sky time trying to try one thing at a time to rule out potential issues. I’ve been close to giving up a few times but stuck with it and as of yesterday, I have found the problem and have a solution in mind! It turns out that my issue was caused by the vibrations from the fan in the cooler in my camera which was causing elongated stars across the frame. A simple test, turning the cooler off to test a light frame is all that was needed, but knowing to try that took me 2 months to figure out. I think I tested everything else that could possibly cause my issue. My solution is to use some silicone anti-vibration mounts for the fan and I’m going to replace my fan as well as I don’t think it’s particularly well balanced. Along the way, during all my testing, I did manage to pick up data on the Owl Nebula as shown here though I’m missing flats on the oxygen channel and really low on integration time. I’m just happy to know what the actual issue is, now on to getting it fixed and back to some imaging!

About this object

Type
Planetary Nebula
Constellation
Ursa Major (the Great Bear)
Apparent magnitude
9.9
Apparent size
3.6′
Catalogue designations
M 97, NGC 3587

The Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). It shines at about magnitude 9.9 and spans roughly 3.6′ on the sky.

Acquisition

Equipment

Astrophotography by David Joyce, AstroDavido.