Update 14 August 2022: integration time increased to 200 x 480" = 26,6 hours
The silhouette of the squid reveals itself now, extremely faint. It took a lot of post processing to make it more visible. Weather permitting, I will gather more data to get a better squid portrait.
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Comment to initial 4 August 2022 release: 115 x 480" = 15,3 hours sub-exposures.
It took months to complete the commissioning of my wide field scope, due to supply chain constraints and a defect in the mount that took a while to be fixed.
The rig is equipped with a modded Canon EOS-77D, and a L-eXtreme dual band clip filter.
All in all, I am happy that the first image came out decently, and that I had the opportunity to test the end to end process.
On the other side I am disappointed that I could not capture properly the OIII emission of the Squid Planetary Nebula (see below for more detail).
After this experience here, I would say that the Squid requires under Bortle 7 probably a cooled camera and necessarily an at least 7nm filter for OIII.
The L-eNhance filter I used here (24nm bandwidth in OIII) was not enough to pick the faint OIII signal, notwithstanding the 15+ hours of integration. The Ha (10nm) was in turn clearly recorded.
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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.