This is NGC 1999, the Keyhole Nebula. It is a reflection nebula lit by the star on the right edge of the lower part of the keyhole. The nebula is so bright there that it is difficult to see the star separately from the nebula.
The interesting thing about the Keyhole Nebula is that it is actually a hole. Many dark spots seen against a brighter nebular background are cold clouds of gas and dust. Not so the Keyhole, apparently. The keyhole feature appears actually to be a hole. Deep images with a variety of infrared scopes (reported here) show that in the keyhold feature there lurks ... nothing. What blasted a hole through this patch of otherwise brightly lit cloud? That is a mystery, but the area is full of young stars just beginning stellar life. Perhaps one of them blasted a tunnel right through.
Mine is not a deep image. Surrounding the blue reflection nebula is a lot more gas and dust that is not lit up so brightly with reflected light. Some more interesting objects my image only begins to show are also brighter in other pictures of the region. You can see some of them in Adam Block's image, here, taken with a much larger scope from the top of a very dark mountain. In my image you can see just a hint of these other things in the reddish background and in the red glowing objects just to the right of the Keyhole Nebula.
Telescope: Orion 254mm f/4.7 Newtonian and RCC I
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (R: 9x240"; B: 10x240" (synthetic green)), T-shirt flats
Filter: Astronomik RB, IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Registar, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX
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