Move ½° north of the Orion Nebula to find the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1973-5-7). The two bright stars involved with the nebula are 42 Orionis (magnitude 4.6) and 45 Orionis (magnitude 5.2). Because the Running Man Nebula is a reflection nebula, observe it without a nebula filter. Its light is reflected starlight scattered throughout the gas and dust, not reddish light emitted by hydrogen (which a nebula filter transmits).

Phillips imaged the nebula from Palomar Mountain, California, November 18, 2007.

On New Year's Eve 1774, astronomer Johann Elert Bode entered into his catalog a description of a peculiar cigar-shaped galaxy in Ursa Major the Big Bear. In 1781, Charles Messier followed suit, giving the galaxy the label still in widest use: M82. Although it hosts a discernable disk, Messier's 82nd discovery is still officially classified as an "irregular" galaxy.

Later generations of astronomers noted M82's dark dust lanes, the copious radio noise it broadcasts, and the fact that it is the brightest source of infrared light in the entire northern sky.

Today, most scientific investigation focuses on M82's most dramatic feature: It is a nuclear starburst galaxy with a broad outflow, or "superwind." A concentration of rapid star birth in its disk heats the material around it, which radiates in the infrared. Astronomers surmise a close encounter with nearby M81 ignited the starburst about 100 million years ago.

Dave Cooper imaged the galaxy from Avondale, Arizona.