The Flying Bat Nebula and the Squid Nebula (SH2-129 & OU4)

This region is extremely dim in our night sky, but after long exposure, it reveals a truly fascinating scene - a blue elongated nebula enshrouded by a large region of ionised hydrogen. The vast hydrogen region is named the flying bat nebula(SH2-129), and the blue nebula in the centre is called the squid nebula(OU4).

The peculiar shape of the squid nebula was possibly formed by the outflow of massive stars in its centre. The radiation from the stars excited the oxygen atoms, making them glow in the charming, mysterious blue colour.

(The image was composed with a total of 45.6 hours of HSO and RGB data, which I processed using Pixinsight, Photoshop and Topaz DeNoise)