I decided to image M97 again to see how much more new details could be coaxed with a larger aperture, more sensitive camera, and longer total exposure. A 3nm narrow band Oxygen III filter was also employed to reveal an extremely faint outer bubble surrounding this expanding ball of stellar material located south-east of Merak, one of the two stars in the Big Dipper that point to the North Star. A total exposure time of 12.6 hours was used for this image compared to 3.5 hours for an earlier image taken four years ago.
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