This image is a mosaic of 2 panels, in SHO for the nebulas and in RGB for the stars.
Panel 1: Panel 2 :
Ha : 45 x 300 sec Ha : 49 x 300 sec
OIII : 41 x 300 sec OIII : 63 x 300 sec
SII : 45 x 300 sec SII : 44 x 300 sec
R : 40 x 60 sec R : 40 x 60 sec
G : 33 x 60 sec G : 27 x 60 sec
B : 24 x 60 sec B : 26 x 60 sec
“The
Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of
interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation
Cepheus about 2,400
light years away from Earth. The piece of the
nebula shown here is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive star (
HD 206267) that is just to the east of IC 1396A. … The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays. The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years, by the standards of
stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity.”
Wikipedia
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