Following a stretch of poor weather, I got a chance to take the telescope out again the other night and got a good look at a somewhat whimsical space ghost - the Running Man Nebula.
The Running Man Nebula (20 min total exposure Mar 3, 2021)
The Running Man (sometimes called the Ghost Nebula) vaguely resembles the shape of a man sprinting, with his huge arms in motion.
The Running Man nebula comprises three separate reflection nebulae, NGC 1973, NGC 1975, and NGC 1977 that are divided by darker regions that form the man himself. It also includes the open cluster NGC 1981. The brightest portion (NGC 1977) was discovered in 1786. The two smaller nebulae were first noted in 1862 and 1864.
Reflection nebulae don’t emit light of their own, instead being made of dust that is lit up by nearby embedded young stars.
This whole region is just a half degree (i.e. the width of the moon) north of the great Orion Nebula that I previously shared here. (You can see the extreme bottom of the Running Man Nebula at the extreme top of that image.)