An Elephant, a Bat, and a Squid walk into a bar... (Greg Mitchell)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep) · Contains: B161 · B365 · B366 · Erakis · Erakis (μ Cep) · HD201047 · HD201344 · HD201429 · HD202214 · HD202380 · HD202519 · HD203025 · HD203338 · HD203376 · HD203627 · HD203802 · HD204231 · HD204599 · HD204613 · HD204827 · HD205113 · HD205196 · HD205329 · HD205510 · HD205917 · HD205948 · HD206081 · HD206183 · HD206267 · HD206482 · And 53 more.

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An Elephant, a Bat, and a Squid walk into a bar...

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An Elephant, a Bat, and a Squid walk into a bar...

I always enjoy showing the spatial relationship between different frequently imaged nebulae. I was pleased to be able to show the Elephant Trunk Nebula along with the majority of the Bat and Squid nebula in this photo. This shows you how close the two really are in Cepheus. The Bat and Squid are usually shown in HOO, and I really like the difference of seeing this in an SHO Hubble palette.

This image was also processed with a little bit lower contrast to show all of the diffuse gas in between these two frequently imaged nebulae. I have also recently started using RGB stars in my SHO images, and while it takes a little bit of extra time n image capture and processing, I really prefer the technique. This allows me to have bright, point like stars that are more representative of the true star colors. Herschel's Garnet Star, Mu Cephei, shines brightly at the edge of the large nebulosity at the center left of the image.

I believe that this is a relatively unique view. I have not seen these two nebula often grouped together except in ultra-wide (camera lens) photos. I enjoy this image because there is enough detail and resolution to observe the wisps of dust in the Elephant Trunk if you zoom in, and yet it is wide enough that you can view the spatial relationship of these features. The planetary nebula PK100+04.1 also visible to the left of Mu Cephei is particularly striking.

I hope you enjoy the image!

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8498094
PixInsight job	B4SDQ6SR87UIS0DBHADTQI004GHAJDI8
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	21h25m30s.73
RA (top/left)	21h49m13s.41
RA (top/right)	21h08m23s.49
RA (bottom/right)	21h02m27s.90
RA (bottom/left)	21h40m31s.32

Dec (center)	+58°42′08″.9
Dec (top/left)	+59°05′18″.6
Dec (top/right)	+60°55′05″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+58°03′05″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	+56°21′49″.8

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An Elephant, a Bat, and a Squid walk into a bar...

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