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.
I continued to be fascinated by the work folks do in the Hubble Palette. There wasn't a ton of imaging time on this one, but it was my first pass at using a new guide scope on my OAG, and it was my first time using NINA in lieu of APT. I might go back and take more photons.... or i might not
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