Gene Handler
This is a two-panel mosaic of 42 hours of exposures taken with an 8″ f/4 reflector and a QHY268M camera using Ha and OIII filters and RGB filters for the stars. The Flying Bat nebula (Sh2-129), discovered in the 1950’s, shows up in hydrogen alpha light and is here colored red and yellow. The Squid nebula (Ou4) was discovered by an amateur astronomer in 2011 and emits primarily oxygen III light, here colored blue green. The Squid nebula is extremely dim and one of the faintest nebulae I’ve imaged. While the distance to these objects is not at all certain, they are believed to be physically related with the Flying Bat being an HII region and the Squid believed to be the outflow from the bright star system at its center.