APOD 2.8

Located in Orion, this grouping of reflection nebulae, NGC 1977, NGC 1975, and NGC 1973, is usually overlooked by astronomers. Lying along Orion's sword just north of the bright Orion Nebula complex, these reflection nebulaeare associated with Orion's large molecular cloud a mere 1500 light-years away. The blue color comes from the interstellar dust reflecting light from young, hot stars. North is at the bottom of the telescopic image from Australia, so the Orion Nebula is touching the top of the view. NGC 1977 spans across the field just above center, seperated from NGC 1973, at the botton left, and NGC 1975, at the bottom right, by dark regions f dust. Many people who have seen this from the northern hemisphere claim to see the shape of a man running, but they're looking at the upside down view. Its pretty interesting, to see the man running upside down, which you can see by looking here a running man. I also looked at the Orion Nebula, and I think that this set of reflection nebulae look much more interesting.