Space Walk: Owl Nebula and Galaxy M108

The Owl Nebula, M97, is a planetary nebula and M108 is a galaxy visually near it in Ursa Major. The Owl used to be a star like our Sun that ran out of fuel and collapsed into a white dwarf, ejecting a huge puff of matter in the process that glows from the radiation of the white dwarf. We see that round glow in our telescope. M108 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Ursa Major cluster of galaxies.

Link to the mp3 audio file. Download the file to the device you will be using to listen to it in the field.

Owl Nebula and M108 Space Walk Among the Stars - audio

Images of The Owl and M108 taken by amateur astronomers.

Charts to accompany the Space Walk. Review these prior to observing with your telescope.

Chart 1: Finding the general area in the sky

You mean the Big Dipper is really part of a bear? Yes- it's an "asterism," or group of stars smaller than a constellation, within Ursa Major, the Great Bear (with a long tail, strangely enough).

Chart 2: Finding your way to The Owl and M108