NGC 1973/5/7 is a reflection nebula 1/2 degree northeast of the Orion Nebula. The three NGC objects are divided by darker regions. It is also called The Running Man Nebula and Sharpless Catalog 279.

This object was named 'The Running Man Nebula' by Texas Astronomical Society member Jason Ware. Approximately 20 years ago his downstairs neighbor looked at the object and said it looked like a running man. He brought this up a TAS club meeting and the name stuck. Now widely accepted as 'The Running Man'. [Source: Wikipedia]

NGC 1977, NGC 1975, and NGC 1973 - are usually overlooked in favor of the substantial glow from the nearby stellar nursery better known as the Orion Nebula. Found along Orion's sword just north of the bright Orion Nebula complex, these reflection nebulae are also associated with Orion's giant molecular cloud about 1,500 light-years away, but are dominated by the characteristic blue color of interstellar dust reflecting light from hot young stars. North is up , so the more familiar Orion Nebula borders the bottom of the view. NGC 1977 stretches across the field just below center, separated from NGC 1973 (above left) and NGC 1975 (above right) by darker regions of obscuring dust. [Source: APOD]

The image was captured with the venerable Meade 12"LX200, using my Atik 383L+ mono at F7.16 (i.e. 2182mm FL). Astronomik's Luminance, Red, Green and Blue filters were used. All subs were taken at 1x1 bin, -10C. and 300s.

Image 2017 -- SGPro image capture software

Lum 300s: 59 subs (4.92 hr) on Jan 26th, 28th and 29th.

Red 300s: 15 subs (1.25 hr) on Jan 26th and 28th.

Green 300s: 14 subs (1.17 hr) on Jan 28th.

Blue 300s: 16 subs (1.33 hr) on Jan 29th.

Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th, 2013. Filter L was used to develop the Lum image. R, G and B were collected for the color mix. North is up. This is a slight crop due to image misalignment due to plate solving variations and dithering.

This was the first image done after Ron Sampson repaired my 12"LX200 Classic DEC drive (pots adjustment).

This may also be the last image done with the Classic setup. I am acquiring a Celestron CGE Pro german equatorial mount which (I sincerely hope) will produce much better image results. We'll see.