Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  IC 1396
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Ha, SoundIdea
IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Ha
Powered byPixInsight

IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Ha

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Ha, SoundIdea
IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Ha
Powered byPixInsight

IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Ha

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Within the region of dust and gas known as IC 1396 lies a very bright, massive star which ionizes the whole region and causes it to glow. The Elephant's Trunk, known as vdB 142, is an area of denser gas and dust that resists the pressure from this star, and glows at the edges in a kind of shockwave. Inside the Elephant's trunk young stars have formed from this pressurized material, and slightly older stars are starting to show through and clear a space for themselves from within. Within a few million years, nothing will be left of this serpentine structure.

I went up to Fremont Peak in California the night of the 11th to watch the Perseids, and decided to take my imaging setup with me to capture this nebula. Some hassle with the mount after meridian flip caused me to lose about two hours of prime imaging time, but I still managed to capture 5 hours' worth of data, of which I kept just under 4. All in all, a fun night of astronomy.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Ha, SoundIdea