An Ancient Owl (that isn't there)

The Owl Nebula a planetary (starburst) nebula about 2000 light years away in Ursa Major, shot from my backyard on March 24, 2021. At a magnitude of 9.9 it is a very faint target for my street-light bathed backyard, but a 5 inch scope at 90 second exposures begins to pull in the details of the owl-eyes. The two circular dark spots in a green orb give it an owl-eye like appearance. The central star approaching a white dwarf stage in it’s lifecycle. But of course, despite the tempting likeness, there’s no owl there. In fact its not green either. More on that later.

Remnants

Crab Nebula; Nov 22, 2022

The year was 1054. Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty reigned in China out of the capital city Kaifeng on the southern banks of the Yellow River. On the 4th of July, at the break of dawn, a bright star burst into view in the sky in the constellation of Taurus. It was so bright, it could be seen during daytime. It remained visible for 23 days during the day.  The star faded slowly over time and on 6 April 1056, 642 days or nearly two years later it disappeared from view. The Chinese wrote about it, as did the Japanese and Arabic astronomers.

Today, a thousand years later, a tenuous wispy cloud is all that remains in place of the progenitor star, now known as the Crab Nebula or Supernova Remnant 1054.