SkyTools 3 Pro shows this as a hybrid object: open cluster (OCL 525.1) and nebula. William Herschel first catalogued the nebula and did not refer to the cluster; it was in 1958 when the stars were official classified.
Luminance only, 30 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; left is east.
The open cluster OCL 525.1 appears to be rather large, encompassing all the bright stars in this image.
The very bright (magnitude 4.6) star near centre is 42 Orionis, a tight double. Due east (left) is the V359 Ori (at mag 7.3). South-east of V359 Ori is triple star 45 Ori (mag 5.2). It is 4 arc-minutes from 42, a nice wide double star target for binoculars.
North-west of 42 is KX Ori (mag 7.3). North of 42 is the triple Σ 746 (mag 9.7). Stephen James O'Meara, in Deep-Sky Companions: Hidden Treasures, says these stars belong to the Orion OB1 Association subgroup c.
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Processed quickly in GIMP. Wow. It worked.
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Image centred on NGC 1973.
Image centred on NGC 1975.
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Wikipedia link: Sharpless 279.
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