IC 1396 is a very large emission nebula in the constellation Cepheus. It is 3,000 light-years from our Earth. The most famous part of the nebula is a huge dark molecular cloud named the Elephant Trunk Nebula. Its shape was created by a stellar wind. The Elephant Trunk object is just a cut-out of an extensive emission nebula, which is popular in astrophotography.
The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula – IC1396 (HaRGB)
| Telescope | ASA 10″ F/3.6 10N ASTROGRAPH OTA |
| Focal length | 900 mm |
| Mount | G53f |
| Imaging camera | Atik 460EX mono |
| Guiding cameras | Lodestar X2 -Autoguider |
| Guiding optics | ASA 10″- OAG |
| Focal reducers | ASA 3″ Wynne Corrector 0,85x |
| Constellations | crop of the area the Nebula in Cefeus |
| Distance | 3000 light years |
| RA center | 21h 39′ 23″ |
| DEC center | +57°32′ 43″ |
| Location taken | Slovakia |
| Date taken | 10/2018 |
| Pixel scale | 1.04 arcsec/pixel |
| Filters | Astronomik Ha 6nm , Astrodon RGB, |
| Exposure | 63x600s Ha filter 100x180s R filter 100x180s G filter 100x180s B filter |
| Total exposure | 15,5 hours |
| Processing software | PixInsight, CCD Inspector |
The IC 1396 processing object was captured using RGB filters and a 6 nm Hydrogen-alpha-H-α narrowband filter. (R+Ha 20%)
Here you see a few hours of individual images (Ha,R,G,B). Photos are only gently stretched (CurvesTransformation).
You can see the final product above.
