In Orion there are a lot of emission and reflection nebulae, originated on large molecular clouds by the brightness of massive stars. NGC 1788 is located 7º west and slightly north of M42. It is a reflection nebula 7' in diameter. It originates from one of the two pillars of dust that arise near the star Rigel, blown by stellar winds coming from the Orion belt. There is a broad shock arc of ionized gas in HII located to the east, towards Orion, probably due to the pressure of these winds. The dark nebula to the southwest is Lynds 1616. It is part of the same mass of dust and gas, and is being shaped by the stellar winds from the two stars at the heart of NGC 1788.
The image is rotated 180º, with Orion at the right (east) and north above. The photograph is taken with RGB and HII filters. The reddish front is very weak without this last filter. During processing, when the HII signal was added to the image, a reddish arc seemed to be created right where the nebula ended in RGB. It was nice. Dust clouds are superimposed in the reflection region, and the frayed structure is clearly visible. The clouds hide most of the stars in the center. The brightes start is HD293815, a young irregular variable of type T Tauri and magnitude 10.24. The dark nebula, Lynds 1616, looks like a cometary tail, pushed by winds from the central stars. There were 16 hours of exposure in February, with an Orion UK AG10 tube and a QHY268M camera.
NGC 1788 has received various names: The Perched Owl, The Cosmic Bat and The Fox Face are some of them. The Cosmic Bat is the most used, although there is another cosmic bat, the dark nebula LDN 43 located in Ophiuchus.
I think the name "Cosmic Bat" refers to the image formed by the small central dark nebula. A bat appears to fly towards us with its wings spread, although one wing is dark and the other light:
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