This narrow-band image of the field around the bright OB star HD77581 was obtained with the 1.54-m Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla observatory. A bow shock is present north of HD77581, the heavy companion of the X-ray pulsar Vela~X-1 that cannot be seen in this image that was made through an H-alpha filter. The OB-runaway star HD77581 is so bright that it saturated the CCD detector, leaving an artificial structure (the "cross") in the image. North is up and East to the left. Release date January 14, 1997.