Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  B160  ·  B161  ·  B162  ·  B163  ·  B365  ·  B367  ·  IC 1396  ·  Sh2-131  ·  VdB142
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396), Gary Lopez
Powered byPixInsight

Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396), Gary Lopez
Powered byPixInsight

Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396)

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Elephant Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar dust and gases 2,400 light-years from Earth. The "trunk" structure meandering into the disc is a chamber lined with dense gases that are ionized by energy from a brightly glowing nearby star. This region is thought to be a star forming area and it contains several recently ignited stars (less than 10,000 years old).

This image is composed of data that I collected in 2018 and 2020. The 2018 data includes 15.2 hours Ha, OIII, and SII. The 2020 data is an additional 6.5 hours of very good quality Ha data (HFR 1.8-2.1) intended to help reduce the noise and improved the structural detail of the original 2018 image. In this rendition I strived to preserve the diaphanous dusty regions, while still revealing the 3-D quality of nebular structures. I blended the colors and values to emphasize the complex, flowing architecture of chambers and passages that honeycomb this spectacular cloud of gasses and dust.

Comments