Messier 97 & 108,
Dean Ketelsen
In this view, planetary nebula Messier 97 (lower left), and galaxy Messier 108
appear close in the sky near the dipper of the Big Dipper asterism, but are
actually millions of light years apart - they just happen to line up near each
other from our perspective. A close examination of the very faint fuzzy objects
close to the limit of exposure are dozens if not hundreds of more distant
galaxies. M97 and the multitude of stars visible are part of our galaxy while
M108 is about 18 million light years away. This image was taken with a Celestron
C-14 telescope + F/1.9 Hyperstar and a Canon 20Da DSLR.
