Running Man Nebula

This nebula lies just above the Great Orion Nebula, which means that I'm actually getting around to regions I was trying to shoot when I started this thing 10 months ago. When you look at Orion's sword, the Great Nebula is the middle clump of stars, while this is the top clump. It's been given three catalog numbers, since there are actually three separate areas of glowing gas that just overlap from our point of view. So say hello to NGc 1973, NGC 1975, and NGC 1977. Most people just refer to it as the Running Man.

Please forgive the satellites...that's the price we pay for cable TV and global telephone service-the geosynchronous orbits of most comm satellites carries them right smack through Orion's belt. Actually, each satellite seen in this area is stationary over our heads; the appearance of motion is caused by the telescope moving to track the stuff in the background. The software used to stack photos usually discards satellite tracks as noise, unless they are very bright, which is what happened here. Only 5 minutes exposure, so I couldn't toss the subs with streaks in them.