Last night I braved the cold, knocked off the worst of the snow from the observatory roof and took advantage of the clear skies (clear skies have been kind of sparse recently so I try to take advantage when conditions allow).

Anyway, here is the resulting image.. NGC1977, known as the Running Man Nebula. It lies just North East of M42 (the famous Great Orion Nebula). NGC1977 is approximately 1500 Light Years distant (which is relatively close in the grand scheme of things).

There are two versions, each processed a little differently. The first version was processed on my laptop, while the second was done on the desktop PC. I would be very interested in knowing which looks better on your screens..

Top one is my pick, very nice.

Well, I was going to say the colors in the top pic are more vibrant, but then I realized I don't know if they're supposed to be vibrant. So, I have to give a +1 to Lipfert and say I like the top one better.

Top has looks to have better contrast with the blues and violets showing out on my screen very vidly. The bottom one appears to have too much white and looks a bit washed out.

BTW I've seen your pics before and must say they are terrific. How is it that you have access to an observatory?

look smore like a centaur to me or a sagitarius point it's arrow backwards then a running man
cool shot.

Outstanding pics Paul.

For a second I thought it might have been the Lion's Head nebula....

Blade, I have to agree with you. It needs a good imagination to see a running man in the nebula.

Pugio, glad you like the pics. I enjoy taking them. I have access to an observatory because it is in my front yard. It is basically a shed with a roof that slides back on rollers. Here are a couple of shots of it.....





I think you guys are right, I prefer the first version of the image too.

Paul - you do nice work! Forgetting color preferences and concentrating on photographic detail revealed in the image, the second one brings out nebular details more clearly and reveals significantly fainter detail. Same with faint stars.

Nice catch, Paul. You're really giving me the itch to brush off my Dob.

I'd have to agree with Eugene about finer detail being present in the second pic. But for 'ooh and ah' value, which impresses most people, the first definitely has more vibrant color to it.