Imaging IC1396 and the Elephant Trunk's nebula.

 This is my first attempt at IC 1396, a large emission nebula which is a region of ionized gas that glows due to the energy from nearby stars, particularly a very bright, massive star (HD 206267).

It is two nights worth of data as outlined below taken over two nights when there was a full moon, so to be honest I am pleasantly surprised that anything showed up at all!

IC 1396 has a magnitude of 3.5 and is in the constellation Cepheus, approximately 2,400 light-years away from Earth; a vast and complex area. Its most prominent feature is the Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC1396A), a concentration of interstellar gas and dust forming a dark, finger-like structure. The entire IC1396 nebula spans over 3 degrees and has a near hollow and gas-poor interior and a complex of dark nebulae threaded throughout the perimeter. Many of the dust structures are aligned so they appear to radiate away from the stars in the nebula’s core.

Look for the reddish star which is Mu Cephei, also known as Herschel’s Garnet Star. The tenth brightest star in the constellation Cepheus, with an average apparent brightness of 4.08, it has a radius 1,260–1,650 times that of the Sun and is one of the biggest stars ever discovered; situated at a distance of about 2,840 light-years from Earth.

IC 1396A, better known as the Elephant Trunk Nebula, is a dark nebula formed by an irregular pillar of dust many light-years long. Pressure from bright stars in the core blows dust from that area leaving behind a darker region at the centre of the nebula while compressing dust around the edges, which drives new star formation. As a result, up to 250 young stars- all less than 100,000 years old, have been detected in infrared images taken of the Trunk region. The Trunk itself is about 20 light-years long. It is the first image in which I have ever captured a strong star formation area of the heavens above.

Imaging equipment used:  Canon 800D DSLR, Zenithstar 61ii refractor scope, EQM-35-Pro mount and guiding with ASIair mini, RVO 32mm guide scope and ZWO 120mm mini guide cam.

Data acquisition: two nights of same data collection – ISO1600, lights 25 x 300”, 10 darks, 10 biases and 15 flat frames. Full moon at 96%+ on each night. Location – two different sites in Cornwall.

So, what do I think about the images?

They were quite hard to process. I use SIRIL, GraXpert and Affinity Photo and somewhere along the way I tend to over saturate the colours and incorrectly process the background sky. I have overstretched the images resulting in star over-bloating as well. So, these are very much a first effort.

Am I pleased with them? Yes. Sort of. I am pleased I captured the data on very bright moonlit nights from two separate locations. The post editing? Well, as always, it is a work in progress isn’t it. 

Report card?  Considerable effort, showing some good acquisition skills but clearly more focus required in post editing! B+

These are the minimally processed first effort images 

First effort 'over-cooked' images

So a third effort will be necessary over the next few days

What do you think I could do to improve the processing further? Let me know in the comment box below. Thanks 

My most recent re-edits.....progress is slow! 😅