The Running Man Nebula

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The Running Man Nebula

[Public Domain] 18 Jan 2015 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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This beautiful region of space is near the Orion Nebula (M42) and is usually included with that in most photos. It really stands on it’s own as a target though so is nice to image by itself. It is a grouping of 3 reflection nebula clouds whose dark inner area separating them is said to look like a running man. I think I see that, though the man looks more like Gumby to me. Which is cool, I like Gumby.

Technical stuff : 

80 minutes of 5 minute exposures (ISO 2000)
8 minutes of 2 minute exposures (ISO 2000)
6 minutes of 1.5 minute exposures (ISO 2000)
Stacked in Nebulosity

There is some horizontal noise because I forgot to “dither” the exposures. Dithering randomly moves the framed image a few pixels in any direction between exposures to average out the noise instead of letting it drift in one direction, causing these horizontal striations.

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