IC-1396 The Elephant Trunk Nebula (Steve Argereow)

IC-1396 The Elephant Trunk Nebula

Elephant's Trunk nebula IC-1396The 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 that is just to the east of IC 1396A. The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays.

Information Credit: Wikipedia

Telescope: Meade 6000 80mm APO Refractor
X0.8 Reducer f/4.8

Mount IOptron CEM40

Camera ZWOASI6200MC Temp -10C Binning 1 X 1
ZWO - EFW

57 X 300 Second Exposures Optolong L-Exteme Filter Gain 100 Offset 50 12/13/2021
76 X 300 Second Exposures Optolong L-Exteme Filter Gain 100 Offset 50 6/16/2022
Total Exposure 11 Hours 5 Mintues

Note: This was the first image I took with my new ZWOASI6200MC OSC I saw recommendation that the gain on this camera should be 0 or 100 the first 57 X 300 Second Exposures where at gain 0 taken 12/13/2021. I wasn't happy with the results, the image was too contrasty. I just added another 75 X 300 subs. There
was some haze and IC-1396 was low in the sky, however I think there still is an improvement with 11+ hours integration time.

Acquitsion with SharpCap
Stacked with Astro Pixel Processor
Guiding PHD2
Processed with Astra Image

Photo taken from Seven Lakes, NC Bortle 4.5

Original
Final
B

B

Description: It was a-little too dark, so I increased the midtones .

Uploaded: ...

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ZWO ASI 2600MC PRO
Optolong L-eXtreme filter

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5911343
PixInsight job	XQUC4X7ZD3WG5CJOWRY6OLVSC296O9YV
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	21h36m54s.22
RA (top/left)	21h43m52s.51
RA (top/right)	21h43m19s.89
RA (bottom/right)	21h29m31s.96
RA (bottom/left)	21h30m54s.87

Dec (center)	+57°28′28″.8
Dec (top/left)	+56°21′40″.2
Dec (top/right)	+58°39′52″.1
Dec (bottom/right)	+58°33′38″.5
Dec (bottom/left)	+56°16′13″.1

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