Ou4

The Giant Squid planetary nebula was discovered by amateur astronomer and astrophotographer Nicolas Outters in 2011. Located in the constellation of Cepheus, it is itself at the heart of another nebula which is the Bat nebula or sh2-129.

Its late discovery is due to the fact that it is visibly almost solely thanks to the ionized oxygen atoms which require, in terms of astrophotography technique, long exposure times.

Still little known because of its novelty, some studies suggest that the nebula is indeed within the Bat nebula, and not far from there simply in the foreground. It would be the result of a triple system of very hot and massive stars which would lose their matter thus creating this original shape.

The image presented was made possible by an L-Ultimate filter with the zwo 533mc pro color camera and the extraction of the Ha and OIII layers in Siril. The processing was very delicate since the blue layer, corresponding to the ionized oxygen, is very weak and must be raised without the hydrogen alpha, in the background and around, being raised too. It was therefore necessary to create ingenious masks using PixInsight in order to be able to work on very specific areas of the image.

Equipment used:
- Skywatcher 80ed Evostar
- ZWO 533mc pro
- ZWO 120mm mini
- EQM-35 Pro
- Asiair plus
- EFW
- EAF
- OAG
- L-Ultimate filter for the Ha and OIII layers
- Stacked and Ha/OIII extracted with Siril
- Processed with PixInsight
- Finished with Lightroom