Tracked and Stacked Reflection Nebula in Orion Unmodified DSLR cameras are very good at recording the blue light from reflection nebulas. This light is simply reflected starlight. But these nebulas are usually faint, requiring longer total exposure times than brighter nebulas.

This complex of nebulosity is designated NGC 1973-75-77, and is popularly, but unofficially, called the "Running Man" Nebula. It is often overlooked because it is located just to the north of the famous Orion Nebula.

Besides red emission nebulas, there are also beautiful blue reflection nebulas in the sky to photograph.

Red emission nebulas shine from glowing hydrogen atoms that are excited by the intense ultraviolet light from nearby hot young stars. This energy strips electrons from the atoms, and when they recombine, they release energy and emit light.

Blue reflection nebulas don't emit their own light like emission nebulas. They are visible because dust reflects the light of nearby stars. They are blue because the scattering is more efficient in the blue wavelengths, just as the Earth's atmosphere scatters sunlight and makes the sky blue.

There aren't quite as many big and bright reflection nebulas as there are emission nebulas. The best know and widely photographed are the reflection nebulosity around the Pleiades, the emission and reflection complex in M20, the Trifid nebula. There are plenty of other reflection nebulas in the sky, such as the Witch Head, but they are usually faint.

This reflection nebula has some interesting dark lanes of obscuring matter running through it in which some people imagine they see the silhouette of a running man, which is where the nebula gets its popular name.

This image was cropped from a wider shot of the Orion nebula area shot with a 70mm refractor with 420mm of focal length. A stock unmodified Canon 1000D (Digital Rebel XS) DSLR camera was used. 15 individual exposures at ISO 1600 were composited together for a total combined exposure time of 25 minutes.

Image Data

• Lens / Scope: Stellarvue SV70ED ED doublet refractor
• Focal Length: 420mm
• F/stop: f/6
• Exposure: Stack of seventeen frames (25.5 minutes total exposure)
• Mount: Orion Sirius polar-aligned German-equatorial mount
• Guiding: None
• Camera: Unmodified Canon EOS 1000D (Digital Rebel XS)
• Mode: JPEG
• ISO: 1600
• White Balance: Custom, set on sky background
• In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off
• Filter: None
• Temp: 28F
• Start Time: 10:05 p.m.
• Date: March 20, 2009
• Location: Maxwell, NJ
• Calibration: None
• Processing: Standard in-camera JPEG processing. Stacked in Deepsky Stacker.