Running Man Nebula

NGC 1977, NGC 1973 and NGC 1975 - Running Man Nebula

 

Reflection nebula NGC 1977, NGC 1973 and NGC 1975 and open cluster NGC 1981 This colorful group of reflection nebula are located just north of Messier 42 and Messier 43, which can be partially seen at the bottom of this image.

 

Found along Orion's sword just north of the bright Orion Nebula complex, these reflection nebulae are also associated with Orion's giant molecular cloud about 1,500 light-years away but are dominated by the characteristic blue color of interstellar dust reflecting light from hot young stars.

 

A (really) wet winter in California this year has prevented me from getting more useful data on this - but the results is still worth presenting.

 

Data captured in Dec 2016 from SRO in California

 

Total exposure time: 15.5 hours.

 

(L:R:G:B) 3.5:4:4:4 hours

 

Scope: Ceravolo C300 @ f/4.9 = 1470mm FL

Mount: AstroPhysics 1100 AE

Camera: FLI PL16803

Focuser: Optec

Filters: Astrodon

Guiding: Lodestar II / Tak guide scope

Image scale: 1.26 arcsec/pixel

Processing: PixInsight 1.8

 

*Image processing credit: Daniele Malleo

 

 

*Data Acquisition Credit: John Kasianowicz, Daniele Malleo, Rick Stevenson, Jose Mtanous, Scott Johnson, Bret Charles

Done