This is a some data from last year but I never got it quite right in terms of the edit. I finally worked it again though and I am much more happy with it. I took a lot of advice from Nico Carver and Nicolas Kizilian (thank you both very much!) on my last edit of it that was never posted and what I could do to improve. They both suggested that the Squid could use so more contrast and that it was all just a solid blue color, no really transparency to it. So I did my best to fix that in this new edit. I am still not entirely pleased with it, but it has come a really long way compared to just editing it like I would a normal image. Regardless, this was definitely one of the most difficult data sets I have had to work with yet, the thing is just so damn dim you can’t see it at all in a single frame. Just a blast though to see it complete and I couldn’t be happier.
Thanks for looking!
If you feel like looking at some of my other images or following me on social media, here is a shameless plug:
This image was also recently awarded Image of the Day as well which can be seen here.
Lastly, here is the paper on its discovery. While we generally find very small nebulae pretty regularly, to find one this large (possibly making it one of the closest to us) and still not be sure what it is (triple star interaction, planetary nebula, something else?) is pretty rare! Especially cool it was discovered by an amateur. A very unique target.
A mysterious, squid-like apparition, this nebula is very faint, but also very large in planet Earth's sky. It spans some 2.5 full moons toward the constellation Cepheus. Recently discovered by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the remarkable nebula's bipolar shape and emission are consistent with it being a planetary nebula, the gaseous shroud of a dying sun-like star, but its actual distance and origin are unknown. A new 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.
Idontlikecock on April 22nd, 2018 at 00:00 UTC »
This is a some data from last year but I never got it quite right in terms of the edit. I finally worked it again though and I am much more happy with it. I took a lot of advice from Nico Carver and Nicolas Kizilian (thank you both very much!) on my last edit of it that was never posted and what I could do to improve. They both suggested that the Squid could use so more contrast and that it was all just a solid blue color, no really transparency to it. So I did my best to fix that in this new edit. I am still not entirely pleased with it, but it has come a really long way compared to just editing it like I would a normal image. Regardless, this was definitely one of the most difficult data sets I have had to work with yet, the thing is just so damn dim you can’t see it at all in a single frame. Just a blast though to see it complete and I couldn’t be happier.
Thanks for looking!
If you feel like looking at some of my other images or following me on social media, here is a shameless plug:
Instagram here
This image was also recently awarded Image of the Day as well which can be seen here.
Lastly, here is the paper on its discovery. While we generally find very small nebulae pretty regularly, to find one this large (possibly making it one of the closest to us) and still not be sure what it is (triple star interaction, planetary nebula, something else?) is pretty rare! Especially cool it was discovered by an amateur. A very unique target.
A mysterious, squid-like apparition, this nebula is very faint, but also very large in planet Earth's sky. It spans some 2.5 full moons toward the constellation Cepheus. Recently discovered by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the remarkable nebula's bipolar shape and emission are consistent with it being a planetary nebula, the gaseous shroud of a dying sun-like star, but its actual distance and origin are unknown. A new 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.
Source: APOD
Equipment:
305mm F/3.8 Riccardi-Honders Astrograph by Astro-Physics
SBIG STX 16803
Astro-Physics AP-1600 mount
Lodestar guiding camera
Astrodon filters
Acquisition
Luminance - 16x300"
Red – 18x300"
Green – 14x300"
Blue – 11x300"
Hydrogen Alpha - 30x1200"
Oxygen III - 29x1200"
Total exposure time - 29.42 hours
Taken from the Deep Sky West Observatory in Rowe, New Mexico. A Bortle 2 site.
Processing
BPP
Combine flats, darks, and biasR/G/B processing
Linear Fit Combine into RGB image Dynamic Background Extraction TGV followed by MMT Masked StretchL processing
TGV followed by MMT Mask Stretch LHE with modified amounts and different wavelet layers as masks Dark Structure EnhanceHO Processing
DBE TGV followed by MMT Stretch Lots and lots and lots of small tweaks in curves with lots and lots of masks Combine in to HOO Create a tone mapHOOLRGB Processing
Combine tonemap with RGB stars using PixelMath A billion more curves and masks cropping and rotating to get this framingProperProfessional on April 22nd, 2018 at 02:29 UTC »
What gives it the shape, looks like someone just drew that shape over a randoe set of stars.
clay_henry on April 22nd, 2018 at 03:21 UTC »
Every single one of those dots is a star. Many of them probably have planets.
Fuck, man.