This is an image of two objects that are not often paired together. One is particularly bright and the other is quite dark. Hence the name.
I am not certain that the pairing looks right but it was worth a half decent try. NGC1999 is very dark but interesting and M42 is very bright and also intriguing to look at in high resolution. Processing of course was difficult and one never really knows if they are respecting the light or not. I suspect not in this image but something similar won the overall winner in 2014 at the DM awards.
Image integration is 24.1 hours with about 9 hours in Ha. Image capture occurred at Swan Reach Imaging on one of our OOUK AG12's and ZWO6200mm.
Click here for larger image.