NGC 1973, NGC 1975 NGC 1977

The image is of "The Great Orion Nebula", M42, an emission nebula and stellar nursery in the sword of Orion.

This is accompanied by "The Running Man Nebula", above, Sharpless Sh2-279. So-called because of its resemblance to a fleeing human running with flailing arms outstretched!

M42 is one of the brightest nebulas in our sky, lying at a distance of 1,300 light years. This massive cloud of glowing gas and dust is a stellar nursery and is the closest massive star forming region to earth.

In contrast to M42 which is an emission nebula the Running Man is a reflection nebula. It is only visible to us because light from an illumination source, such as embedded stars, lights up the surrounding gas and dust..

Notable is the extensive amount of dust clouds evident throughout the image.

Imaged with an Askar 71f refractor and a ZWO 2600MC camera fitted with an IDAS LP filter.

A total of 40 (180s) exposures, calibrated with temp. matched darks, flats and dark flats.

Thanks for looking!

Winter imaging is not complete until you image the Orion and Running Man nebula found in the constellation Orion. This is probably one of the most photographed nebula in the sky. Objects in this view include M42 (Orion Nebula), M43 (de Mairan’s Nebula), NGC 1977 (The Running Man Nebula), NGC 1975 and NGC 1973.

Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Canon 6D stock camera, 98 minutes total integration time with mixed exposure at ISO 3200. Image Date: January 11 and 28, 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory in Weatherly, PA, USA.

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae in the Northern Hemisphere and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with apparent magnitude 4.0.

Generally considered a constellation of winter, Orion is still visible in the northern hemisphere now (late March) low in the southwest after sunset. It is 1,300 light years away, the closest region of massive star formation to Earth.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust.

The Orion Nebula is in turn surrounded by the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex which is hundreds of light years across, spanning the whole Orion Constellation.

At the top of the image is Sh2-279 (alternatively designated S279 or Sharpless 279). It is a bright nebulae that includes a reflection nebula . It is the northernmost part of the asterism known as Orion's Sword, lying 0.6° north of the Orion Nebula. The reflection nebula embedded in Sh2-279 is popularly known as the Running Man Nebula.

Capture info:

Location: Las Cruces, NM US

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106N

Mount: RST 135E

Camera: QHY268C

Data: 72 x 180sec

Processing: Pixinsight

another winter classic and back in 2019 my first deep sky object i captured. it was a spontanious decision to shot it as other parts of the sky were covered with thin layers of clouds, but i have no regrets :) it shows the great orion nebula, the de mairans nebula and the running man nebula.

camera: ToupTek ATR533C

mount: Skywatcher HEQ5Pro

scope: Skywatcher Esprit ED80

dual narrow band: 40x180sec @gain 100 and 1x1 binning, cooled to -10°C

RGB 40x120sec @gain 100 and 1x1 binning, cooled to -10°C

stacking and editing in APP

shot at new moon under a bortle 5+ sky

The job I had the past few years had taken up all of my landscape photography time, and thankfully it is over and I will be doing work that will allow more free time for photography. In the meantime I have been acquiring a telescope and computerized mount system for deep space imaging.

This is the very first image I processed, the Orion Nebula (with smaller Running Man Nebula above) using my standard Sony SLT that I carried for many years. Recently I purchased a dedicated astronomy CMOS camera that is monochrome and it's like learning photography all over again from complete scratch.

The image acquisition and processing time for these captures can be extremely time consuming, especially when learning. The software and hardware can be very challenging as well...one time I go out and everything runs smooth, the next program and driver issues for no apparent reason.

The famous M42 nebula and the Running Man nebula, also.

One raw shot in Astrotracer mode and lots of post-processing in PS CC.

I have reedited a series of images I captured from my back garden recently using some different editing techniques and created what I feel is a better cleaner image of The Orion Nebula, The Running Man Nebula as well as Orions Belt stars, Flame Nebula and Horsehead Nebula.

The time I used Siril to do the bulk of the editing and finished off in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Nikon Z6ii

Tamron 70-200 G2 lens at 200mm

60 secs x 49

f/4

ISO 800

Skywatcher Adventurer 2i tracker

K&F Light Pollution filter for Bortle 5 sky.

Calibration frames used to balance the image (Darks, Flats & Biases)

Thank you for looking.

Fortunately the two single pictures have a small overlap. So it is possible to create a mosaic with Pixinsight

Hi all,

I managed to capture an early image of the M42 The Orion nebula and running man Nebula. The image was 30 x 5min subs using a canon 5D M3 plus a canon-ef-70-200mm-f2-8l-is-iii-usm-lens @200mm ISO 200. Tracking was on a CG5 EQ mount.

I don’t know what it is about this Nebula but it’s mesmerising every year I can’t help but turn the telescope to it.

Still playing around with the image processing tools offered by SiriL.

This is a stack of only 9 images. This time I used the old manual Nikkor f:3,5/400mm ED-IF.

30sec, f:5.6, ISO 400, iOptron SkyGuider Pro

L 26x300s, R 29x300s, G 24x300s, B 28x300s

8.9 hours total integration

11" Edge, AP1100GTO, SSAG w/60mmGS

NINA, Pixinsight, text label Gimp

Location: Astronomers Paradise

January 3,4,5, 2022

Taken over 5 nights in Kaunas (Bortle class 7-8), Lithuania, March 2021.

256x60s ISO400 lights

20 darks

26 flats

26 dark flats

28 bias

Setup:

SkyWatcher Explorer 150 PDS

IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter

Baader 2" MPCC Mark III Coma Corrector

Canon EOS R

An HDR version of M42 Orion Nebula and The Running Man Nebula.

Imaged from my home in Gergal, Spain in November 2024.

This was to test the performance of a new iOptron CEM 26EC portable mount for my William Optics GT81 telescope. The ASI 1600MC Pro Cool camera was on loan from the Los Coloraos complex while I wait for a new mono image rig to be assembled. The images were taken without any filters at all.

I also took some narrow band data but after experimenting with the data, I decided I preferred the natural colours of the nebula.

Thank you for taking a look

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

Here's the beautiful features that make Orion my favorite winter constellation in HaRGB.

Orion's Belt, made up of the stars (from left to right) Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak can be seen in the lower left of the photo. Near Alnitak is the picturesque Horsehead and Flame Nebulas Above (in this photo, below in our sky) is the brilliant Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula.

This shot is a combination of about 4.5 hrs of Ha Data (2nd photo) merged with about 1 hour of RGB data from our nearby dark sky site in Cumberland Forest, VA.

All of this data was captured with my Samyang 135mm camera lens, and Zwo ASI294MCPRO Camera and Skywatcher EQ6-R Mount. This was a fun widefield project even if I did lose a couple of fingers and toes getting the data. I hope you enjoy it, and get some clear views of Orion before it's gone for the year (in the Northern Hemisphere at least).

Orion and Running Man nebulas. Another go at this winter favourite. Getting better at post-processing I hope.

edit: wow, this just keeps blowin' up on tumblr. cool.

ngc1977 - running man nebula.

all data collected with lightbuckets.com 12" R-C telescope (LB-0003) in rodeo, new mexico.

L(R:G:B) = 48m(20m:20m:20m)

Luminance: 6x8min, stacking with deepskystacker. masked stretch in pixinsight 1.5, then 5 more stretches which were HDR fused in enfuse. next, cleanup of geosynchronous satellites in photoshop. finally, dark structure enhancement, atrous wavelet sharpening and noise reduction in pixinsight 1.5.

RGB: 5x4min per channel. masked stretch in pixinsight 1.5, then 8 stretches fused with enfuse. then histogram peak normalization and curves in pixinsight 1.5 again. cleanup of satellites in photoshop. slight sharpening with atrous wavelets, and noise reduction in pixinsight 1.5.

Luminance+RGB merge with pixinsight 1.5. cleanup of CCD artifacts in photoshop.

minor tweaks in lightroom 2.0

comments: i got all the way to the end of this and realized that i wish i had sharpened the luminance channel a whole lot more. also i've probably stretched the RGB data a bit too much for the exposure lengths.

these geosynchronous satellites are really killing me.

Here are three popular views in the constellation of Orion that seem to naturally go together. So I thought how can I make a triptych-like display of them. The three shots were made without rotating the camera, just repointing. At first I arranged them in their relative positions in the sky, but then switched the left two (Horsehead and M78) because the trio looked more balanced in terms of visual appearance. The view of M42 on the right is enlarged a bit from the other two again to create balance. This is not a true triptych in the strict sense since there is no continuity or overlap between frames but they seem to complement one another very nicely. The view on the left is the Horse Head and Flame Nebula, the center is part of Barnard’s Loop and M 78, and the view on the right is M 42 and the Running Man Nebula.

These images represent nearly 20 hours of total integration through 5 filters (LRGBHa) with my Takahashi FSQ 106 and ZWO ASI6200 MM camera. The data were collected in my backyard in a red zone in the northeast suburbs of Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA during January, 2022. All image calibration, alignment, and integration (via NormalizeScaleGradient), and stretching were done in PixInsight. The images include some enhancement of the red channel by a blend with data through a hydrogen-alpha filter in PixInsight using PixelMath. Final levels and contrast adjustments were made in Photoshop using luminosity masks.

Orion_Triptych_220130_RQFugate

Shot with the Fujifilm XT3 using the William Optics ZS61 and mounted on the ioptron Skyguider pro.

50 x 2 min light frames

20 x 2 min dark frames

The most spectacular constellation of the winter sky: A giant, star forming and ultra bright molecular cloud complex - Orion the hunter

Roughly 7 hours total data, finally got some clear (Bortle 5/6) skies from suburban Brisbane driveway

This is a bit of an imaging swansong for this season of the beautiful Great Nebula in Orion's Sword, which was designated M42 by Charles Messier in his famous catalogue.

It is an emission nebula and stellar nursery.

This image is a combination of data captured in January this year with my Askar 71mm refractor and data acquired back in January 2022 with my Skywatcher Esprit 120ED.

The image includes the "Running Man Nebula", above the main nebula and catalogued as Sharpless Sh2-279. It is so-called because of its resemblance to a fleeing human running with flailing arms outstretched! Sh2-279 actually contains 3 NGC nebula: NGC 1973, NGC 1975 & NGC 1977 divided by darker nebulous regions. It also contains an open cluster NGC 1981.

Also included is M43, De Marian's Nebula, visible as a comma-like feature projecting at the top the main nebula and associated with dense dust and gas features.

M42 is one of the brightest nebulas in our sky, lying at a distance of 1,300 light years. This massive cloud of glowing gas and dust is a stellar nursery and is the closest massive star forming region to earth.

In contrast to M42 which is an emission nebula the Running Man is a reflection nebula. It is only visible to us because light from an illumination source, such as embedded stars, lights up the surrounding gas and dust..

Notable is the extensive amount of dust clouds evident throughout the image.

Imaged with an Askar 71f refractor and a ZWO 2600MC camera fitted with an IDAS LP filter during the night of 15 January. This data was combined with exposures obtained with my Esprit 120ED and a ZWO 2600MC on the 11 January 2022.

A total of 4hrs of exposure over the two sessions, calibrated with temp. matched darks, flats and dark flats.

Thanks for looking!

These two nebula were the first astrophotography targets I ever captured. The original image was shot on my DSLR and a small iOptron tracker. I am trying to simplify my imaging these days to both have a convenient way to capture as well as method to digitally observe. I have shifted to using the ASI Air Plus device. The device itself is just a simple computer with WiFi. Where this device currently stands out is the app. In one location you can align, plate solve, observe, capture, guide, focus, frame, and polar align. It has a new all sky polar align feature that allowed me to get to <3'' in less than 5min. Goodbye cables, computers, and babysitting your kit. In the past at star parties, I spent half the night cursing my kit that by the time every thing was humming all the observers were going to bed. Instead of missing the reason for the event, hanging out with nerdy astronomers, I choose to not image. Hopefully with the simplicity and secondary use as a digital observation tool, I have solved the dilema every astrophotographer often faces. The above image was shot on a Televue NP-101is, Takahashi EM-200, ASI071MC Pro, unguided, no filter, 20x180s OSC in Bortle 8 skies (metro New Orleans).

Processing: PI WBPPS/PCC/Extracted Lum/DC/MMT (Riso method)/HT/HDR

PS ColorEfex Detail Extractor/Curves/Smart Sharpen

The Running Man Nebula might be one of the most recognizable things in all of the night sky. I have just one question... Is he running to something or is he running from something? The world may never know.

I captured this image (from my home in Colorado) using iTelescope.net's T24 telescope based in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. I captured 18 images (in one night) and processed them with Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop and Topaz Sharpen & Denoise. Star spikes are natural.

Telescope Optics & Camera

• Optics: Planewave 24" CDK (T24 Reflector)

• Focal Length: 3,962 mm (deep field)

• CCD: FLI-PL09000 (9.3 megapixels)

Exposure Settings

• 18 images (9 luminance, 3 red, 3 green & 3 blue)

• Exposure Time: 5 minutes (each image)

Captured last night in the desert of Arizona. The three stars across the top are Orion’s Belt, and from left to right the names of the stars are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. To the left of Alnitak is the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), and below Alnitak is the fainter Horsehead Nebula (LDN 1630). You can also just make out NGC 2023, a small nebula to the left of the Horsehead Nebula. In the bottom of the frame is the bright Orion Nebula (M42) with the smaller Running Man Nebula (M43) just above it. There are other fainter dust lanes and gas clouds scattered here and there.

Nikon Z 7, FTZ lens adapter and NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4 lens @ 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 800. Stack of 30 exposures at 1 minute each. I used an iOptron SkyGuider Pro star tracker. The images were prepared in Lightroom, stacked in Starry Sky Stacker (Mac), and edited in Photoshop for color correction and to bring out the details.

Visit my website to learn more about my photos and video tutorials: www.adamwoodworth.com

This took much work to get something more or less usable in colors with the bright lit street lights, and no use of any LPS filters (to avoid any double reflections), I also had to ditch the Green lights, that caused nothing but trouble.

M42 region with Orion and the Running Man nebula;

In the recipe:

A sweet slight portion of Halpha added to the Red channel to cheat the system a little bit and pop the clouds up

A synthetic 30/70 merge between Red and Blue for the Green channel to cheat the system a little bit more (in your face, light pollution)

And a Blue channel uncooked and raw, to come up with something like this...

A careful merge of the extremely bright Trapezium of the nebula

Integration time (not so clear)

Around 30% of 2 hours of Halpha in Red channel

Red: 26 x 2 minutes

Green: 17 x 2 minutes, all ditched in the bin, they don't count.

Blue: 21 x 2 minutes

Integration time for the bright core:

Red: 60 x 5 seconds

Green: 41 x 5 seconds

Blue: 12 x 1 seconds / 87 x 2 seconds / 24 x 5 seconds / 8435184641 x the number of times I lost my mind trying not to overexpose the core

Total integration perhaps not much more than 130 minutes, I don't even know.

All data taken between 2 nights on the 23rd and 25th February, 2019

Gear: Takahashi FSQ-106ED / ASI1600MM-C / 0.73x CR Reducer / AZ-EQ6 / Baader 1,25" filters

No flats, No darks, No bias

This image is a little bit cropped this time, since some corners were destroyed for who knows why

Image of the great Orion nebula M42 and the Running man nebula on the left. Orion nebula is the nearest star forming cloud to Earth with a distance of 1300 light year. This cloud is composed of hot Hydrogen gas and dust and can be seen by the naked eye in the dark places. In the image, we can see the Trapezium core of the nebula which is hot young stars that energise the hydrogen gas to emit red light. Gear setup: ES 102 CF, x0.8 F/F, iOptron GEM 45 pro, Optolong L-Pro filter, ZWO 294 MC @0. Zwo mini guide scope, ZWO 120MM-S. Lights 70x120s, 20 Darks, 20 Flats, 50 Bias. Total integration of 2 hours. Stacked and processed by PI.

Used a stock camera(Nikon D5600) with a very close spectral response similar to the human eye. Hydrogen emission nebulae actually appear pink due to H-alpha (red), H-beta (blue) and emission from other atoms, like oxygen and sulfur. Orange faint nebulosity is the dust clouds.

Data acquisition

-----------------------

Camera : Nikon D5600

Lens : 70-300mm kit lens (300mm @f6.3)

Mount : iOptron Skyguider Pro

Tripod : Manfrotto MT190

Total exposure : 1 Hour 26 mins

172 framses stacked,cropped and processed.

Light frames : 30"x 172

no dark,flat,bias frames

Bortle scale : class 4

Image processing

------------------------

Stacked using Deep Sky Stacker

Image processed using Siril , ImagesPlus and PS

www.instagram.com/rupesh_sreeraman

Just north of the Great Nebula in Orion is this region of gas and dust known as The Running Man Nebula. To see it properly in this picture, tilt your head by 90°. Lost of dust... soooo much dust, and it's scattering light from hot, blue B-class stars. Thus, the blues that fill the center of this image. That violet area? I'm not sure - maybe a combination of blue from reflection nebulae and red from emission nebulae?

This is a stack of 35 75s exposures from a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" scope at f/2.3 with Hyperstar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; stacking and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.

The image scale is 2.5" per pixel. J2000 coordinates of the center are:

RA 5h 35m 21.8s

DEC -4° 48' 6"

I'm quite fond of Open Cluster NGC 1981 - it was the first object that I pointed a GOTO telescope at. Had been reading about it just beforehand and thought the characteristic "little donkey" shape would be easy to confirm - its the collection of stars at the top right.

The Running Man nebula is a mix of blue reflection nebula from dust and red fluorescing hydrogen gas lit by the intense UV light of the stars around it.

This is just a detail from the previous image so I wont repost the technical card.

I wanted to bring out some of the dust and gas clouds around the bright nebulae in Orion - so I’ve processed this to highlight the background.

117 x 45 second exposures

Modified Canon 80D with IDAS LPS D1 filter, ISO200.

Sigma 135mm f1.8 @ f2

StarAdventurer Pro tracking mount

PoleMaster polar alignment

Focused with Backyard EOS FWHM routine

ZWO mini-guider/ASI120mm/ASIair guiding - RMS error 1.34 arcsec (guiding in RA only)

Image scale 5.7 arcsec/pixel

Light pollution measured at 20.1 magnitude/arcsec2

100 dark frames

100 flat frames (1/100s electroluminescent panel)

100 bias frames

Processed in PixInsight 1.8.8

Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D3300.

125 lights x 90 s @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop.

aka. NGC 1975 or Sh2-279

03.01.2025. - 30.01.2025. - Samobor|New Zagreb,Croatia

Telescope: SW 130PDS

Camera: ZWO ASI585MC PRO

Filter: ZWO UV/IR 1.25''

Mount: AstroBobo HEQ5 Pro (Mod by Leviner)

Guding: ZWO ASI120MMS + SVBONY 120MM F4

641x60s (10h41m)

This wide field shot includes the Running Man nebula at the bottom right, the Horsehead nebula just below the star Alintak in the center, the Flame nebula just to the left of Alnitak and the nebula called Messier 78 in the upper left. It is all part of the intense star forming region that is sometimes referred to as the Orion molecular complex.

This image consists of 50 100 second exposures, stacked in Photoshop CS5.

Canon 70D with vintage Takumar 200mm f 4 manual lens at f4. Stopped down to f 5.6 in front of lens with stepdown rings. This way I don't get diffraction spikes in the stars, which I don't find attractive in this particular lens.

IOptron Startracker pro with counterweight which made a huge difference in tracking accuracy with this particular camera lens combo.

Rigel systems star finder.

EOS utility for bulb timer and Canon DPP for quality checking on the fly.

Winter Star Party 2024 Day 2 (Tuesday).

Image reposted with refined GHS non-linear stretches.

M42 and some surrounding faint nebulosity captured at Winter Star Party with 20 MPH surface winds. Image also includes de Mairan's Nebula (M43) and The Running Man Nebula (NGC1975).

ZWO ASI6200MM-P/EFW 2" x 8 (LRGB)

Tele Vue NP101is (4" f/5.4)/LFC

Losmandy G11

Captured with NINA with advanced sequencer

Processed in PixInsight and stretched with Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (GHS)

L: 73 x 60s = 01:13

RGB: 24 x 90s each = 00:36

Total integration: 01:49

Pixel size: 3.76 x 3.76 um

Sensor size: 35 x 24 mm (full frame)

Sky FoV: 3d40m x 2d30m

Image scale: 1.44"/px

Great Orion - Running man nebula

Category:

Tracked/Stacked

Social:

www.instagram.com/benethqq

Reprocessed image from 2019.

Exifs:

Nikon D810

Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR

Sky watcher sky adventurer

Light 7 x f/5.6 ISO 2000 , 155 sec (300mm)

Dark 10 x f/5.6 ISO 2000 , 155 sec

Pixinsight / PS

And Running Man Nebula above it, seen from Powell River, B.C.

Orion Nebula distance from Earth: 1,500 light years.

Nikon D3100

AF-S VR Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 G IF-ED

Great Orion and Runing Man nebulae. Stacked JPEG files and a bit of incident light. Not great, but a rush-job in a short cloud-free period from suburban environment. Focus could have been sharper but getting the hang of the equipment (my excuse 😀).

The Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977, Sharpless 279, Sh2-279) is an HII region and bright nebulae in the constellation Orion. It lies adjacent to the Orion Nebula (on the right side of this image). The entire complex also includes NGC 1973 and NGC 1975 that are divided by a darker nebulous region. Can you see the running man figure inside the nebula? Image was captured through some high level thin clouds.

Observation data: J2000.0 epoch

Right ascension: 05h 35m 16.2s

Declination: −04° 47′ 07″

Distance: 1,500 ly

Apparent magnitude (V): 7.0

Apparent dimensions (V): 40′×25′

Constellation: Orion

Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO AS2600mc-Pro running at -10C, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, Optolong L-eXtreme 2” filter, 36 x 300 second guided exposures, darks from the library and flats at the end of imaging, focused with a ZWO EAF, controlled with a ZWO ASIAir Pro. Processed using PixInsight and DSS. Image Date: February 8, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

The Running Man Nebula is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It is approximately 1,500 light-years away from Earth. The nebula is part of the area known as Orion’s Sword, along with its brighter and larger neighbour, the Orion Nebula (M42).

Last night was a clear hot night in Melbourne and because the was a full Moon I decided to setup the scope so I could test my collimation with a star test. After spending an hour or so tweaking the scope, rather than pack up, I thought I would do a quick image to test the scope. As I only had a small amount of time, I needed a bright object so I thought M42 - the Orion Nebula. Not really a good target as with the 1625mm focal length on the very centre was in the field of view. Then a thought "the Running Man nebula". After framing, focusing and calibrating the guiding, I imaged for 1 hour, and this is the result.

Equipment Details:

• GSO 8" Carbon Fibre Ritchey Chretien (RC8) Telescope

• Skywatcher NEQ6 Mount

• ZWO ASI533MC Pro Color Camera cooled to -10'c

• Orion ST80 Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI120 Mini Guide Camera

• ZWO ASIAir Pro for Mount Control, Polar Aligning and Image Acquisition.

Exposure Details:

• 20 X 180 seconds - Bin 1x1

Total Integration Time: 60 mins

Processed in PixInsight

After my first test shot with little exposure time under rather unfavourable conditions already hinted at the famous Horsehead nebula, I tried this again, this time for real. A wonderfully clear night, no moon, and only one target...

I was able to acquire 2 h 8 min in 256 useful subs before my camera's batteries ran out and I got cold...

But I was amply rewarded! This image taken at 300 mm focal length with the TAIR-3S just exactly fits all the famous objects, from the Flame nebula (bottom left) to Orion's bright belt star Alnitak, and of course the Horsehead nebula, to the Running Man nebula and the Great Orion nebula M42 on the top right. I also like the soft but numerous spikes from the slightly stopped-down lens on the brighter stars.

Maybe I'll find some time to compose a HDR image some time, where the core of M42 isn't burnt out and the Trapezium stars are visible, but seeing has to be quite good for this and M42 season is nearing its end here...

EXIF:

Lens: TAIR-3S (300 mm f/4.5) @ f/5.6

Camera: Samsung NX30, mirrorless APS-C, unmodified

Acquisition: 256x 30 s @ISO3200; total 2 h 8 min

Mount: Skywatcher Star Adventurer, unguided, manual dithering

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker

Processing: fitswork, ImageJ, Aurora HDR 2018

2x2 binning was performed during processing, and a pseudo-luminance channel was created by summing up all three colour channels.

and the Running Man Nebula

The last clear nights I've tried a bit in the astrophotography here in my garden in the South Eifel / Germany. I have often photographed the Orion Nebula in the past and have always been very happy that this is possible with my camera. But to get a better result, I do not do as I did then only one shot, today I make as many as possible to combine them in a single picture.

I have tracked with the Vixen Polarie (Star Tracker), reworked with Deep Sky Stacker and Lightroom.

Details:

OMD E-M5 and 40-150mm F2.8 + MC-14, mounted on Vixen Polarie

389 Lightframes each 15sec....f4...ISO 3200...210mm

and a few Darks and Bias.

(With the correct implementation of the colors of the mist I have struggled hard)

This area of Orion is rich with nebulous gems. From the Horsehead and Flame nebulas in the center to M78 and a swath of Barnard's Loop on their left and the Orion and Running Man nebulas at lower right, it's an astronomical treasure chest. The old and unmodified Fujifilm X-T10 crop sensor mirrorless camera picks up the red H-alpha nebulosity remarkably well.

This is a stack of eighty-two tracked 80s exposures with the Samyang 135mm f/2 lens at f/2, ISO 1600, for a total of 1hr 49min exposure. No darks, flats or bias frames were taken. The Orion nebula is blown out; next time I will take some shorter exposures so I can do an HDR blend to record more of the core detail of that nebula.

Exposures were stacked in DSS and processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop CC. Photographed from Bend, Oregon in Bortle 3 skies.

Nothing nicer than the magical sight in the night skies above us .

I have no idea how much exposure ended up on this. A couple nights ago I was able to try a few hours of narrowband Ha and Oiii (2 minute subs), so started with HOO (which is a really nice pallette- first time trying that).

Then I added a previous year's LRGB to get more of the reflection nebula blue. Back to clouds now, so here is where it will stand.

With the cloudy winters it took me 3 years to get another crack at M42 , so I was happy to have the opportunity and play with the narrowband data.

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Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: Great Orion Nebula · IC 420 · Lower Sword · M 42 · M 43 · Mairan's Nebula · NGC 1973 · NGC 1975 · NGC 1976 · NGC 1977 · NGC 1980 · NGC 1981 · NGC 1982 · Orion Nebula · The star 42Ori · The star 45Ori · The star θ1Ori · The star θ2Ori · The star ιOri · Upper Sword · the Running Man Nebula

Astro Tech AT66ED

Imaging Cameras

QHYCCD 163m

Mounts

Celestron CG-4 MotorDrive

Filters

Orion SkyGlow Imaging Filter · Blue · Green · Red · Ha filter Oiii filter

Accessories

Rigel Systems Focuser · Astro Tech 0.8x Reducer/Flattener

Software

Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy · Open Guiding PHD2 Guiding · Astro Pixel Processor · Adobe Photoshop CS4 Photoshop CS4

Guiding Telescopes Or Lenses

MEADE 50mm Finder Guidescope

Guiding Cameras

ZWO ASI120MM

Acquisition details

Basic astrometry details

Astrometry.net job: 5498231

RA center: 05h34m25s.4

DEC center: -05°18′00″

Pixel scale: 2.354 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 266.101 degrees

Field radius: 1.862 degrees

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Resolution: 3444x4534

Data source: Backyard

Photo taken from Athens, Greece

Lens: 120mm/600mm Skywatcher StarTravel refractor telescope, Bahtinov mask focusing

Camera: Canon EOS 250D

Exposure: 600 light frames * 0.4sec. = 240sec., 20 dark frames, 10 flat frames

ISO: 6400

Mount: Alt./Az.

Processing: DSS stacking & GIMP

I can't resist doing this popular target every year as it looks so pretty.

Imaged on 05 Jan 2022, from my back garden, the naked eye visible object, the Great Orion Nebula (M42) and the Running Man Nebula (SH2-279) are situated below Orion's belt in the Orion winter constellation (in northern hemisphere).

The core is extremely bright in comparison with the outer diffuse layers so this is a composite of 3 layers of:

30 x 2 sec RGB

20 x 10 sec RGB

60 x 120 sec RGB

(about 2 hours exposure total)

with a Redcat 51 (250mm) and ASI 533C cooled astro camera on an iOptron Skyguider Pro, no guiding.

Processed in APP, StarTools and Gimp.

Da qualche anno pensavo di cambiare il rifrattore Scopos TL805, compagno di tante avventure sotto cieli stellati; quindi dopo tanti dubbi, rinvii e prediligendo un telescopio con un rapporto focale il più basso possibile, visto che l'Inquinamento luminoso spesso mi costringe ad utilizare filtri a banda stretta, la mia scelta è caduta sul tripletto apocromatico Askar 103APO con il suo riduttore 0.6X.

E la sua prima luce nel mese di dicembre non poteva che essere la "Grande nebulosa di Orione" nota anche come "M42" . Con il rapporto focale f/4 è stato bello riuscire e scorgere anche le nubi interstellari più deboli. Mi ritengo molto soddisfatto di questo primo risultato e mi auguro il primo di una lunga serie.

Buon Natale a tutti.

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For some years I had been thinking about changing the Scopos TL805 refractor, companion of many adventures under starry skies; so after many doubts, postponements and preferring a telescope with a focal ratio as low as possible, given that light pollution often forces me to use narrow-band filters, my choice fell on the Askar 103APO apochromatic triplet with its 0.6X reducer.

And its first light in December could only be the "Great Orion Nebula" also known as "M42" . With the focal ratio f/4 it was nice to be able to see even the faintest interstellar clouds. I am very satisfied with this first result and I hope for the first of a long series.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Google translator

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Optic: APO Refractor Askar 103APO + 0.6X

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC-Pro

Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Synscan

Seeing: 3-4 (scala Antoniadi)

Filter: Narrowband Optolong L-eNhance 2"

-104x180s 121gain / 35 dark /21 flat / 18 darkflat /100 bias

-18x30s 121gain / 20 dark /100 bias

t° sensor: -10°C

Date: 10+16/12/2024

Integration: 5h 12min

Temperature: 7°C (media)

location for : Biancavilla -Catania-(Italy) 515m slm (Bortle 5-6)

Acquisition: NINA, PHDGuiding

Processing: DSS, SIRIL, PS, GraXpert.

The Sword of Orion region, in the Orion Constellation. This features the amazing Orion Nebula (M42) as well as the smaller and less colorful Running Man Nebula (NGC1977). Hubble has spied new planets being formed around the newer stars in the heart of the Orion Nebula, thus making it a true stellar nursery.

Image Details:

- Imaging Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval

- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with UV/IR Blocking filter

- Guiding Scope: AstroTelescopes 80mm ED Refractor

- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider

- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap

- Guiding Software: PHD2

- Light Frames: 20x5 mins @ 100 Gain, -25F

- Dark Frames: 20*5 mins

- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

- Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom