Mar 11
The Surfboard Galaxy, M108 // Willem Jan Drijfhout
seen from China
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The Surfboard Galaxy, M108 // Willem Jan Drijfhout
MERLIN (2008 - 2012) Morgana Pendragon ▶ Season 1, Episode 08: "The Beginning Of The End"
Messier Objects: In order, M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy), M102 (Spindle Galaxy), M103 (Star Cluster), M104 (Sombrero Galaxy), M105 (Elliptical Galaxy), M106 (Spiral Galaxy), M107 (Globular Cluster), M108 (Spiral Galaxy), M109 (Barred Spiral Galaxy), and M110 (Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy).
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The Comet, the Owl, and the Galaxy
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak poses for a Messier moment in this telescopic snapshot from March 21, 2017. In fact it shares the 1 degree wide field-of-view with two well-known entries in the 18th century comet-hunting astronomer's famous catalog. Sweeping through northern springtime skies just below the Big Dipper, the faint greenish comet was about 75 light-seconds from our fair planet. Dusty, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 108 (bottom center) is more like 45 million light-years away. At upper right, the planetary nebula with an aging but intensely hot central star, the owlish Messier 97 is only about 12 thousand light-years distant though, still well within our own Milky Way galaxy. Named for its discoverer and re-discoverers, this faint periodic comet was first sighted in 1858 and not again until 1907 and 1951. Matching orbit calculations indicated that the same comet had been observed at widely separated times. The comet 41P orbits the Sun with a period of about 5.4 years. Credit: Barry Riu
The Surfboard Galaxy, M108 // Frank Sackenheim & Rainer Raupach
The Owl Nebula (M97, upper left) and the Surfboard Galaxy (M108, bottom right) // w4sm
The Surfboard Galaxy, M108 // Carlos Rincón
The Surfboard Galaxy (M108, upper right) and the Owl Nebula (M97, lower left) // David Cheng
Located near the Owl Nebula (M97) on the sky, the Surfboard Galaxy was discovered by Méchain in 1781, only three nights after he found M97. Messier himself observed it about a month later, although he didn't measure its position and so did not include it in his catalog.
William Herschel (1738-1822) independently discovered it in 1789. It wasn't until 1953 when American astronomer Owen Gingerich (1930-2023) identified it as M108.