NGC 1977 – Running Man Nebula

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TheCave

One late night, I decided to image the Running Man Nebula, NGC1977, imagining that the bright stars in the nebula would look cool in my non-blooming camera with big diffraction spikes. It didn’t disappoint but I noticed even when I was focusing that almost every shot I took had an airplane or two in it! My friend Bill Janda tells me this is a common pathway called “Victor Airway” where many planes take about the same path directed by GPS. I went ahead and imaged it anyway since it was late – I was tired and what the heck. Bruce Pipes suggested I use “sigma clip” to reduce the effect of the streaks and it worked! Attached is the result. I made a gif animation of some of the frames showing the streaking planes. It looks like a shooting gallery! I also included a close-up of the “Cave” and the “Pink Tornado” as well as some cool H-alpha nebulae in the lower left. The area is apparently illuminated by the bright Orion Nebula just south.