Sh2-129 & Ou-4 Squid Nebula (Molly Wakeling)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep) · Contains: HD202214 · HD202380 · HD239618 · LBN 449 · LBN 453 · Sh2-129

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Sh2-129 & Ou-4 Squid Nebula

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Sh2-129 & Ou-4 Squid Nebula

The full scene is cataloged as Sh2-129, and is often referred to as the Flying Bat Nebula. Here, hydrogen gas is red, and oxygen gas is blue. The Squid itself appears to be the remnant of some kind of stellar outflow, although its exact nature isn't known. If it is part of the larger hydrogen cloud surrounding it, then it may be the outflow from a triple system of massive hot stars known as HR8119. Sh2-129 lies 2,300 lightyears away in the constellation Cepheus. If the Squid is as far away as the rest, then it would be 50 lightyears across! The Squid section of the nebula was only discovered in 2011 by French astrophotographer Nicolas Outters,

While the hydrogen signal in this image revealed itself readily, the Squid proved very elusive indeed. I wasn't sure I was going to have enough images after acquiring 20 hours, since I've seen others capture that much or more, and the Squid was not visible at all in the single images. In fact, I triple-checked the coordinates the first couple nights to make sure I was in the right spot! But by the power of statistics, the signal rose up from the noise when I combined 215 frames.

The other attached image is showing what a single image looks like compared to the whole 215-frame stack! Magic.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6643603
PixInsight job	71J4EGZNXZ8RI9AAKVPMB4B0QLY3BH4D
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	21h12m14s.71
RA (top/left)	21h17m34s.82
RA (top/right)	21h08m52s.19
RA (bottom/right)	21h07m03s.42
RA (bottom/left)	21h15m28s.97

Dec (center)	+59°56′45″.1
Dec (top/left)	+60°24′50″.1
Dec (top/right)	+60°38′30″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+59°27′52″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	+59°14′41″.2

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Sh2-129 & Ou-4 Squid Nebula

Sh2-129 & Ou-4 Squid Nebula

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Sh2-129 & Ou-4 Squid Nebula

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