Open cluster
Running Man Nebula (NGC1977)
In Orion (Ori) • Magnitude 99.0 • 10 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with Running Man Nebula pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Reflection nebula just north of M42, often imaged together.
Running Man Nebula at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 1977 |
| Type | Open cluster |
| Constellation | Orion (Ori) |
| Right ascension | 05h 35m 16s |
| Declination | -04° 50' 39" |
| Apparent magnitude | 99.00 |
| Angular size | 10.2 × 10.2 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 40° |
| Best imaging months | Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb |
How to image Running Man Nebula
Running Man Nebula sits in the constellation Orion at right ascension 05h 35m 16s and declination -04° 50' 39". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window.