Thanks so much to the The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Robotic Telescope project for the great data to play with!

Time July 2019

Location Sierra Remote Observatories, Aubery, California

Telescope RCOS 16" f/8.9 (3550mm focal length)

CCD Camera SBIG STX16803 16MP (4096 x 4096)

Mount Paramount ME

Filters SBIG LRGB, Ha (7nm), OIII (8.5nm), SII (8nm)

Exposures RGB = 3 m x 5 = 15 m, total = 45 m

NB = 15x30m each, total 22.5 h

My Processing

Using raw data, all images were registered and stacked in DSS, with flats, biases and darks.

In StarTools, the NB data was processed as SHO with (40+60,70+30,100). I really needed to bring down Ha, this was the best comprise I found to create the required unbalance to bring out the different chemical aspects of the image. In Photoshop, further tweaked of color was done to bring out that gold/blue HST coloring. Stars from the NB images were removed.

In Photoshop, the star layer was processed in RGB space, added as a screen layer on top of the NB layer, to add the stars back in.

As for this amazing nebula itself, the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula is a dense region of dust and gas found within IC 1396. Designated IC 1396A, the elongated globule of dust and gas was named the Elephant’s Trunk visually. However, when my wife pointed out that my image was a Moose Head, I could not get that out of my head. Being Canadian, eh, what else could it be? it is a Moose Head.

The nebula is 2,400 light years from us, and in total more than 100 light years across. The blue multiple star system HD 206267 is responsible for what we see. The Elephant’s Trunk (or Moose Head) itself is about 20 light years across. This large dark globule is eroded by the radiation pressure from the central star that illuminates the nebula. I really like all the dark Bok globules here, big and small, though the first time I saw the small ones, I wanted to delete them as cold pixels, but they are real, and with their thick dust and gas they are birthing new star systems.