20210722 - (CEP) Sh2-129 Flying Bat Nebula  - It’s a zoo out there … Trying what the RedCat can capture on a single summer night, with bats 🦇 flying around during a nearly full moon 🌕  

What was the experience
While I’m testing out the TS94 with the CEM70, the RedCat is shooting around the sky for any other furry DSO it can capture 😂.
Running the RedCat has nearly become a routine, and it’s now my base Rig for initial wide-field capturing in combination with the ASI 183 MC Pro, working its plan from the ASIAIR Pro. The cooled camera makes a big difference. Not enough photons captured on this one, but a glimpse of the squid was visible in the processing. Happy that my learning has brought me this far already. 

What’s in the picture(s)Sh2-129 - Flying Bat Nebula - https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150911.html
Quote: “Very faint but also very large on planet Earth's sky, a giant Squid Nebula cataloged as Ou4, and Sh2-129 also known as the Flying Bat Nebula, are both caught in this scene toward the royal constellation Cepheus. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula's alluring bipolar shape is distinguished by the telltale blue-green emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms” 

How it was done
Mount: SW EQ6-R Pro 
Guiding: ASIAIR Pro, ZWO30F4, ASI120MM
Scope: WO RedCat 51Camera: ASI183MC Pro
Resolution: 1,98”/pixel, FoV 218’
Filter: Optolong L-Extreme
Moon: 98%(+), Bortle 5/6 SQM 19.60
Photons:  Gain 125, cooling -10, 300s, 50x ( o/w 6 rejected)
Darks 31x
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)
IG: @astrowaut 

What have I learned from this
A cooled camera makes a huge difference for DSO wrt background noise
Gradually improving my skills in PixInsight, through processing, and re-processing, and re-re-processing 🙄Tedious, but it helps in getting fluent at this 
It remains a difficult choice between capturing a new DSO and getting more data on an old one. The consequence of going for diversity is less quality, as not enough data can be captured, but the diversity of DSOs also helps to learn how to deal with the specifics of each DSO.
Capturing flying bats needs a lot of photons 😂 

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭