A quick one-night “recon trip” to BLM land near Powderhorn, Colorado afforded one-night in clear dark skies (our second this year!) to wring out the cobwebs of our camping and Beast-based imaging routines. If you’ve only got one night – you make the most of it – so it was SH2-129 Flying Bat and the Milky Way!!
Capture Notes
The data for this image were captured during a one-night quick trip to the Powderhorn, Colorado area. The trip was more a recon trip for our August anniversary dark skies trip but since the skies were clear, I decided to take the Southern Cross and its new Askar 0.7x reducer to give it a try, gathering some more data on the elusive SH2-129 Flying Bat/OU-4 Squid Nebulae. We’re calling the spot on BLM land that we found Tolvar Flats (38° 19’ 2.40” N; 107° 11’ 18.30”W) at 8814.2 feet (2686.56m)) because of its proximity to Tolvar Peak and its relative flatness.
After I got the Southern Cross going on the SH2-129 Flying Bat/OU-4 Giant Squid Nebulae I set up the Canon EOS Ra with the Sigma 14mm lens on a tripod to capture the Milky Way.
Equipment
Imaging stream: Canon EOS Ra. Sigma 14mm 1:1.8 DG lens, manual focus, f2.0.
Sequence Control: Pixel Pro TW-283 N3 Wireless Shutter Remote Control Timer and Shutter Release
Capture & Processing
Sequence plan: ISO 1600, f2.0, 186 x 15sec. Captured 26Jul2025, 2251 – 2356MDT. Total exposure time: 46.5 minutes.
Capture: 26 July 2025
Shooting location: “Tolvar Flats” near Powderhorn, Colorado.
Processing: Stacked all the captured images using Sequator. Created a STARLESS version using Starnet++. Processed STARLESS in LR (using AW presets and custom mask actions). Used PS to bring the STARS and STARLESS back together (puppet warp to straighten trees).