Presented here in RGB full-color from a cooled DSLR is a wide-field image of a large region of nebulosity spanning some 5 degrees of the sky known as IC 1396 - The Garnet Star Nebula in the Constellation Cepheus (The King). The relatively hot nebulosity is punctuated with dark lanes of cooler dust and gas. A massive number of stars is found in this area as well.

Associated with this nebula is The Garnet Star (Mu Cephei), which is a very luminous red supergiant star, one of the largest and brightest stars visible not only to the naked eye but in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. This giant star has a radius of 1650 times that of our Sun. If it were possible to put this star in the place of our Sun, it would extend midway between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. It is also referred to by its common name, "Erakis," or, alternately, as "Herschel's Garnet Star" in honor of its deep color and of Sir William Herschel, who was one of the first astronomers to describe it.

The Garnet Star, visible in the lower corner of this image, is a variable star, which wobbles in brightness by over a magnitude in a somewhat irregular pattern over a period of 2 to 2.5 years with its average brightness varying over a period of a decade or so as it dips to as low as 5th magnitude. At the same time, this star is losing mass through a strong internal wind. Astrophysicists and astronomers believe that this star has stopped its internal hydrogen fusion. It now appears to be fusing helium in its core into carbon. Ultimately, this great star is destined to explode into a supernova.

Also associated with this region of nebulosity and embedded within it is an interesting cosmic feature called "The Elephant's Trunk." This feature consists of bright sweptback ridges of nebulosity outlined by pockets of cool interstellar dust and gas that resemble the truck of an elephant. This dark tendril-shaped cloud contains new material for star formation and hides prostars within the obscuring cosmic dust. I have also uploaded a close-up image of this feature cropped from this image that you will find here: http://www.astrobin.com/258484/0/