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NGC1981 and NGC1977 "Running Man" in Orion

 

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Scope: Megrez II at f/5.2,  Location: Blair Valley, Anza Borrego Desert, CA   20 January 2007,   Camera: Artemis285

Exposure: 10 x 180 sec  IR/UV Block Filter (1x1), 8 x 90 sec RGB Exposures (2x2). 

Processing: Images were captured  with Artemis Capture (as FITs).  Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance, IR/UV Block,  and Color channels were scaled and  color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart.  Very slight Central Gradient removal was done in Astroart. Curves and Levels applied in Photoshop to optimize object features.  Star sizes were managed by layering several different stretches of the 180 sec IR/UV exposure data and merging the higher stretched nebula with the lightly stretched bright stars. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB) - G2V calibration factors were applied.  Selective sharpening was applied to nebula features in Photoshop with a layer mask.  Final Image size is approximately 1392x1044.

North is up in this image. NGC 1977 is sometimes known as the Running Man Nebula. The star cluster just above the nebula is cataloged NGC 1981. Distance estimates vary but the approximate distance from Earth is about 1,500 light years. This image replaces and earlier image that can be seen in the Archives here . The Horizontal FOV is 72'.

Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 35m 18s Dec: -04°41'00"

 

All images and content remain the property of Jim Thommes - copyright 2003 - 2012

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