The Squid Nebula image proved to be a challenge and a work in progress to me, due to the extreme faintness of its OIII signal, specially under my suburban sky, with a not-cooled DSLR.
After publishing the first two versions of the object here
https://astrob.in/x85x3m/B/ I recorded additional signal, for a total of 37 hours and 44 minutes of integrated time. To date, this is my longest exposure.
Imaging nights: 24, 26, 27 July and 3, 4, 10, 11, 14, 16 August 2022.
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SH2-129 is a relatively faint emission nebula in Cepheus, a neighbor of the larger and more often imaged IC 1396. In the central part of Sh2-129 is located, but hardly visible on this image, the so called Squid Nebula Ou4, a beautiful bipolar planetary nebula, discovered by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters in 2011.
A recent investigation suggests Ou4 really lies within the emission region SH2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, the cosmic squid would represent a spectacular outflow of material driven by a triple system of hot, massive stars, cataloged as HR8119, seen near the center of the nebula. If so, this truly giant squid nebula would physically be nearly 50 light-years across.
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