|Right Ascension||11 : 14.8 (h:m) |Declination||+55 : 01 (deg:m)
|Visual Brightness||9.9 (mag) |Apparent Dimension||3.4x3.3 (arc
min) Dicovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. The Owl Nebula M97 is
one of the fainter objects in Messier's catalog, discovered by
Pierre Méchain on February 16, 1781. In the description of this
object, Messier also mentions two other nebulous objects that he
(and Méchain) have seen at about the same time, but which he had
not added in his printed catalog version of 1781 (in the
Connaissance des Temps for 1784). As the description is obvious
and he added positions by hand in his personal copy, as well as
descriptions in his manuscript personal pre-print version, we
now know that he had observed the objects M108 and M109. The
name "Owl Nebula" goes back to Lord Rosse, who first used it in
1848; see his drawing. M97 is one of the more complex planetary
nebulae. Its appearance has been interpreted as that of a
cylindrical torus shell (or globe without poles), viewed
oblique, so that the pr