NGC 1999 and the Orion Molecular Complex: A Hole in the Sky

Image Title: NGC 1999 and the Orion Molecular Complex

Copyright: Copyright: André Vilhena

Date image was taken: March 01, 2025

Location: A Veiga, Spain

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

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Image Description and Details: Right next to the Orion Nebula there’s a region of the Orion Molecular Cloud which is often underlooked by astrophotographers. Even so, some beautiful photos have come up recently showcasing a not very prominent but very interesting feature which is NGC1999, aka The Cosmic Keyhole.

In my case, having a lower focal length, NGC1999 is barely visible and I decided to frame it as a transition from the bright Orion Nebula to the “empty” space. I think it was well worth it as the whole nebula surrounding NGC1999 has a lot of structure and interesting features. Two of my preferred are IC427 and IC428.
IC 427 is a blue reflexion nebula right next to NGC1999 and I found it quite interesting as it is partially covered by a dust lane which resembles me like a bridge. IC428 is on top of it and I really like its golden hues.

However, I realised this scene hides a lot of Harbig-Haro objects (HHO), namely 61. This comes as no surprise since HHO are associated with newborn stars and the Orion Molecular Cloud is indeed one of the most active star formation areas known. These structures arise when material is ejected by protostars along the axis of rotation in both directions, creating a rod-like shape structure.

I hope you enjoy.

Equipment Details: Twinstar FG80 | TS Optics Triplet APO 800/115 | TS Optics TSFLAT2 0.79x | QHYCCD 268M | Optolong LRGB | RBFocus Myrrdin 2.3 | RBFocus Camelot 2’’ | RBFocus Excalibur V2

Acquisition: N.I.N.A. | Processing: Pixinsight

Name: André Vilhena

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.instagram.com/the.cosmic.arena/