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!! ...and this was first light with my newest imaging stream addition – the Askar f/3.9 0.7x Full Frame Reducer for the Askar FRA600
Fun facts
SH2-129, sometimes referred to as the “Flying Bat” nebula, is a relatively faint emission nebula in Cepheus, a neighbor of the larger and more often imaged IC 1396 Elephant Trunk. This region is characterized by Ha emission as well as a small, mixed emission and reflection nebula (vdB 140). What is most remarkable about this region is a recent discovery, made in 2011 by Nicolas Outters, called the “Squid Nebula” due to its shape, but more officially called Ou4. This region is characterized by a very faint OIII emission that has a bipolar shape reminiscent of a planetary nebula, seen as the teal-colored region just to the left of center. Although it was originally thought to perhaps represent a planetary nebula derived from an unknown, dying star, more recent evidence suggests that Ou4 is located within SH2-129 itself and is a bipolar outflow emitting in the OIII spectrum, moving at the same rate as SH2-129, and possibly emanating from a triple star system located in the center of Ou4 (HR8119, visible above as the bright star in the center of the Squid). Though apparently completely surrounded by the reddish hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, the true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, a more recent investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. The truly giant Squid Nebula would physically be nearly 50 light-years across.
Other Catalog Designations: SH2-129 Flying Bat Nebula, Ou4 Squid Nebula
Subtype: HII region
Distance from Earth: 2300 light years
Size: 50 light years
Apparent Size: 2°20’
Constellation: Cepheus
{Target information derived from: http://www.starrywonders.com/sh2-129small.html , https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201007.html , and Stellarium }
Capture & Processing Notes
The data for this image were captured during a one-night quick trip to the Powderhorn, Colorado area. The trip was meant as more of 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 got an “early” start (it would have been earlier, if the Beast’s canopy hadn’t spontaneously deployed and we had to take the time to research on YouTube – how to disconnect and retract it by hand – it’s always something!). Even with that ~one hour delay, we arrived in the Powderhorn area (after a stop in Gunnison for fuel and a most excellent hamburger from the food truck parked beside the gas station) at about 1330MDT. We were looking for a site in the trees that we’d found during our way out of camp in July 2023. We took Hwy50 West, turned south on CR149 (Silver Thread Scenic Byway), and then after CR149 turned to the West, we turned north onto CR26 (Lake City Cutoff Road). We searched along CR26 for areas where we could camp and ended up at a flat (although there were a LOT of rocks (i.e., tripping hazards) and somewhat treed area just off of BLM 3014D that we chose for our night’s camp.
I suggested that we not set up the full camp (ground cover, canopy, stove, etc) for a one-night stay, but we did… After doing the camp set-up, I starting to set up my equipment at about 1530…periodically looking at the grey and storm-threatening clouds. Once I had the mount leveled, roughly aligned, and the telescope mounted on it, I asked Paul his opinion of the impending rain. “Yes, it’s going to rain. It’s going to clear up at about 2000MDT.” So, I took the telescope off the mount, and covered the tripod/mount with a waterproof tarp – took Zeus for a walk and had dinner.
At about 1900, I ventured out to begin assembling the rest of the equipment – it was still pretty cloudy and there were a few sprinkles – but I was balancing that with the impending darkness, so I pushed forward. At astronomical twilight (2130MDT), the clouds cleared to the north, so I started the polar alignment. By the time I was done with that (which took a very small fraction of the time it does in the Southern Hemisphere – THANK YOU Polaris!!), all the clouds had cleared!
I had set up the mount for its new location (using the hand controller) when I originally set up the mount (but not the telescope) – convincing / adjusting its settings from their last Southern Hemisphere use to their current location. The Polemaster software also came up in Southern Hemisphere, but that was a quick fix to change. I got the sequence started, the telescope and autoguider scope focused and then started the sequence. I had one round of CW/CCW/CW/CCW until the plate solving failed. (I put in my notes (and probably should put on the camera body or telescope rotation point) – CW is rotate to the LEFT!) I rebooted everything, put the camera back at the 90° angle that the plan called for and started up again. The second attempt went well, with only one 9° rotation in the correct direction, and I was off to the races. With the first subframe captured at 22:18MDT.
I got up at about 02:00MDT to do the meridian flip and then got up at 05:00MDT (at the start of Nautical twilight) to end the sequence. I ended up marking about 5 subframes as bad (too light)…about to the point of Astronomical twilight (nighttime ends).
The version #1 processing again has the OU-4 Giant Squid Nebula hidden within the Ha-dominant SH2-129 Flying Bat, although a lot of interesting blue and green came out in this image, using the f3.9 Askar 0.7x reducer under dark skies. I attended Nico Carver’s 3 August 2025 Patreon Sunday Chat to ask the question if it is at all possible to capture this image (including with the OU-4 visible) using a one shot color (OSC) camera. He stated, given enough data and HaOIII extract OIII processing should make it possible. Thus, the data comprising the v1 image below will be added to the other data I’ve collected on this target to continue processing future versions…
Sequence plan: Gain 300, Offset 30, Temp 0°C; 72x5min. Captured 26Jul2025, 2218MDT – 27Jul2025, 0508MST. Total exposure time: 6:00. (Five frames marked BAD at end of sequence, 27Jul2025, 0442 – 0508MDT)
Shooting location: A new BLM location was are calling Tolvar Flats due to its proximity to Tolvar Peak, on a flat mesa “overlooking” Blue Mesa Reservoir. (38° 19’ 2.40” N; 107° 11’ 18.30”W) at 8814.2 feet (2686.56m)
Processing summary: Captured with SGP. Stacked in APP using Adaptive Airy. Star removal with Starnet++. Processed in LR/PS.
Equipment
All equipment controlled by HP Probook running Sequence Generator Pro v4.4.1.1441.
- Imaging (ASI2400-SC w 0.7x reducer): ZWO ASI2400MC imaging camera on Askar FRA600 108mm f/5.6 Quintuplet Petzval Flat-Field Astrograph (Southern Cross) with Askar f/3.9 Full Frame Reducer for FRA600
- Mount: Rainbow Astro RST-135E (controlled by iHubo ASCOM driver)
- Polar alignment: QHYCCD camera (controlled by Polemaster for polar alignment)
- Autoguiding: Orion 60mm Multi-Use Guide Scope with Orion StarShoot AutoGuider Pro Mono Astrophotography Camera (controlled by PHD2)
- Auto Focuser: ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser – Standard (EAF-5V-STD)
Other Images of SH2-129 Flying Bat & OU-4 Giant Squid Nebulae
Capture & Processing Notes
With the beginning of visibility of nebulae, I’ve continued my obsession (started in June 2023) of imaging the SH2-129 Flying Bat and OU-4 Giant Squid Nebulae. Since I was imaging from HCH, Colorado Springs, I decided to capture more data with the OIII filter to supplement the data captured last year on the OU-4 Giant Squid Nebula (the blue region of the image).
Used the data in conjunction with the other data I’ve captured on SH2-129/OU-4 listed below
Composite image’s session sequence plans:
Image was created by registering:
- SH2-129 Flying Bat Combine v2 – RGBHOO (created 10Jan2024)
- SH2-129 4sessionLeX – 23Jun-16Sep (lpg-cbg and StarCal)
- SH2-129 Flying Bat – ASI2400SC with OIII filter – 12&17May2024
- SH2-129 Flying Bat – ASI2400SC with OIII filter – 26May2024
- Sequence #1 (23Jun2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 38x10min. Captured 23Jun2023, 2140MDT – 23Jun2023, 0428MDT. Total exposure time: 6:20hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCLeX)
- Sequence #2 (1Jul2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 21x10min. Captured 1Jul2023, 2155MDT – 2Jul2023, 0444MDT (with gap 0226-0333MDT), deleted first and last image too much light. Total exposure time: 3:10hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCLeX)
- Sequence #3 (2Jul2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 31x10min. Captured 2Jul2023, 2210MDT – 3Jul2023, 0436MDT (deleted last image). Total exposure time: 5:10hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCLeX)
- Sequence #4 (16Sep2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=30; 31x10min. Captured 16 Sep2023 (16Sep2023, 2107MDT – 0301MDT). Total exposure time: 5:10hrs.
Two sessions of OIII, using OIII Color algorithm
- Sequence #1 (15Jul2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 24x10min. Captured 15Jul2023, 2258MDT – 16Jul2023, 0440MDT. Total exposure time: 5:10hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCOIII)
- Sequence #2 (16Jul2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 23x10min. Captured 16Jul2023, 2209MDT – 17Jul2023, 0411MDT. Total exposure time: 3:50hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCOIII)
RGB: Four LeX sessions combined to create the RGB with Ha-OIII Color. Used the Star Calibration Tool to create a correctly colored star field (rather than the predominant red that is in the LeX version.
- Sequence #1 (23Jun2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 38x10min. Captured 23Jun2023, 2140MDT – 23Jun2023, 0428MDT. Total exposure time: 6:20hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCLeX)
- Sequence #2 (1Jul2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 21x10min. Captured 1Jul2023, 2155MDT – 2Jul2023, 0444MDT (with gap 0226-0333MDT), deleted first and last image too much light. Total exposure time: 3:10hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCLeX)
- Sequence #3 (2Jul2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=NotSet. 31x10min. Captured 2Jul2023, 2210MDT – 3Jul2023, 0436MDT (deleted last image). Total exposure time: 5:10hrs. (HCHASI2400#1SCLeX)
- Sequence #4 (16Sep2023): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=30; 31x10min. Captured 16 Sep2023 (16Sep2023, 2107MDT – 0301MDT). Total exposure time: 5:10hrs.
OIII: Two separate images (one image with data from 12&17May2024 stacked together; one image with data gathered on 26May2024 were registered, captured with the OIII filter.
- Sequence #1 (12May2024): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=30. 37x5min. Captured 13May2024, 0038MDT – 0408MDT. Total exposure time: 3:05hrs
- Sequence #2 (17May2024): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=30. 55xmin. Captured 17May2024, 2340MDT – 18May2024, 0439MDT. Total exposure time: 4:35hrs
- Sequence Plan (26May2024): Gain: 300, Temp: -0°C, offset=30. 19x10min. Captured 27May2024, 0040MDT – 0429MDT. Total exposure time: 3:10hrs (ASI2400-SC-OIII)
Capture: RGB: 18 & 23 June, 1 & 2 July; 16 Sep 2023, Total: 19:50 hours. OIII: 12, 17 & 26 May 2024, Total = 10:50 hours. Total exposure time: 30:40hrs
Shooting location: All data gathered from HCH, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Processing summary: Captured with SGP. Stacked and registered in APP. Star removal with Starnet++. Processed in LR/PS using Nico Carver’s technique of colorizing the OIII layer and blending it into the main image.
Equipment
Polar alignment: QHYCCD camera (controlled by Polemaster)
Imaging stream: (Southern Cross) Askar FRA600 on Rainbow Astro RC-135E, ZWO ASI2400MC#1 camera, Filter: Optolong LeXtreme (RGB) or Askar OIII 3nm filter (OIII)
Mount: Rainbow Astro RC-135E (controlled by iHubo ASCOM driver)
Autoguider: Orion 60mm Multi-Use Guide Scope, Orion StarShoot AutoGuider Pro Mono Astrophotography Camera (controlled by PHD2)
Equipment controlled by HP Probook (DSO CTRL 1) running Sequence Generator Pro v3.3.0.1305