LDN 43 Cosmic Bat nebula

This molecular cloud is located approximately. 1400 light years away from earth. Its shape resembles a bat. Especially, if the image is rotated 180° as shown here.

For this images the data was stacked using SiriL. Using the Python host of Siril the background gradient was removed by the VarLux Box script, followed by a deconvolution of the stars and the nebulae with GraXPert (within SiriL). After that a slight noise reduction not he linear image was performed.

Then it was stretched using a combination of the VeraLux hyperemic stretch script and GHS. The resulting image was transferred to Affinity Photo 2. The stars were separated using StarXTerminator and then a Luminance map was build and slightly tone mapped to emphasize the "bat". Further contrast and saturation adjustments were performed and the stars were slightly reduced.