Located approximately 2400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus, IC 1396 (SH2-131) is a large cloud of ionized gas and dust. Within its confines is IC 1396A or commonly referred to as the Elephant Trunk Nebula because of its similar appearance. It sits on the top portion of my image pointing upwards. Most visible light images show IC 1396A as dark, however, that is because it glows in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as does the famous Horsehead Nebula. Several very young stars have been detected in the Elephant Trunk indicating that it is an active stellar nursery.

The really bright orange star located on the lower left at the edge of the nebula is Mu Cephei or Herschel's Garnet Star. It is a red supergiant nearly 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, one of the largest known stars. If it were placed in the Sun's position it would engulf the orbit of Mars and maybe Jupiter. It is also nearing its death as it has burned up all of its hydrogen and is now fusing helium into carbon.

So this is the second image taken with the ZWO ASI294MC Pro attached to the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens with the ZWO EOS Filter Drawer. I decided to make use of the filter drawer by using the IDAS NBZ filter. I purchased this dual-band filter over many other versions because this can also be used with fast setups including Hyperstar which I now have. I had my lens set at F/4 this time rather than F/3.5 which is what it was set on for the IRIS Nebula. The total exposure was 4.35 hrs (87 x 180s) and was collected over two nights when the moon was up. I would have had more time but I still have been having computer and program issues which are eating away imaging time.

So how do you make an HOO image from a color camera? I call it the “Cuiv Special”! Actually I followed a video from Cuiv (Link) where he separated the color image and recombined it in such a way to mimic a narrowband image. I had to modify it a bit as he did a full SHO combination. Of course it will only work if the data you collect is from a Multi-narrowband filter such as the IDAS NBZ. Attached is a short video comparison with and without using the NBZ filter. (Link)