The Owl Nebula M97 is one of the fainter objects in Messier's catalog, discovered by Pierre Méchain on February 16, 1781. In his description of this object, Charles 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. 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.

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 projected matter-poor ends of the cylinder correspond to the owl's eyes. This shell is enveloped by a fainter nebula of lower ionization. The mass of the nebula has been estimated to amount 0.15 solar masses, while the 16 mag central star is believed to be of about 0.7 solar masses. Its dynamical age is about 6,000 years.

M97 is quite bright in the 8" telescope with UHC filter. Surface of the M97 has grainy appearance with two holes visible with averted vision. Visual dimensions of this nebula are 2'x2'.