This emission nebula is often referred to as the Elephant Trunk Nebula or by its catalogue number IC1396. I see the resemblance to an elephan trunk, especially at the tip of the long dusty arm. However, it could also well be a finger pointing up, therefore I was more inclined to give this image the title of “A Cosmic FInger Reaches out“. It is one of my earlier images that I took from Starfront in August of 2024. During that full moon cycle, as it is almost customary by now, I was imaging this bright region rich in emission gases such as Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulfur. Using narrow filters of around 3nm, I could punch through the bright moon light and gathered around 30hrs of exposure time to reveal the intricate interplay of the three gases. By mapping the three filter images of Sulfur, Hydrogen and Oxygen to the RGB channels, one can admire the distinct distribution of these gases in the classical Hubble SHO-palette.
In order to have more naturally colored stars, I also included around 25min of short exposures in RGB. After I processed the starless SHO-image to best showcase the emission nebula, I screened the natural RGB stars on top of it to recreate the final image.
Technical Details
Frames:
- Red: 50×30″(25′)
- Green: 50×30″ (25′)
- Blue: 50×30″ (25′)
- H-alpha 3nm: 63×600″ (10h 30′)
- OIII 3nm: 63×600″ (10h 30′)
- SII 3nm: 52×600″ (8h 40′)
Total Integration: 30h 30′
Equipment:
- Sky-Watcher Esprit 100ED
- ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
- ZWO AM5
You can find this image also posted on my astrobin profile.
Sky Plot
If you are curious to know where the Elephant Trunk Nebula is located, you can use this interactive Sky Plot built by Aladine Lite.