This is a set of images taken on August 6, 2023 of IC 1396. I’ve imaged this before – this time with a better camera, and this time to image the surrounding area also.
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 (HD 206267) 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.
The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years, by the standards of stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity.
The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center outward lead to very high compression in the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula. This pressure has triggered the current generation of protostars. (Wikipedia)
Imaging Data:
Provo, Utah
Bortle 5 sky
Date August 6,2023
Image: IC 1398
Size: 11.7’
Magnitude: 9.8
Exposure= 180 seconds and 51 lights for a total of 1 hour and 33 minutes
Gain=100
Binning = 1×1
Camera Temperature= 0 deg C
Filter= IDAS-NBZ Narrowband Filter
Camera: ASI2600MC PRO in Hyperstar configuration.
Telescope: Celestron 1100 Edge HD
Mount : 10MICRON GM1000HPS
Processed with DSS, PI and PS