It’s been another typically hot summer day but the sky’s remained clear. Dome’s opened and circulating fan turned on at 19:00.
The original object selected was the Crescent Nebula, but given the large Hyperstar’s large FOV NGC 6888 was aborted after stacking only a few frames. The first few frames, taken before the sky was black, exhibited a lighter zone on the right side of the frame, but this zone cleaned up once the sky did get dark. The lower dome shutter and all other light trespass tools were utilized.
I’d done IC 1396 back on 13 Aug 2021 and it was very crude indeed. This nebula is in the heart of the Milky Way and when you’ve got a zillion bloated stars things ain’t pretty. It did provide a valuable reference and tonight focus is super critical.
The air’s calm and the sky’s black but not very transparent. Bortle six as far as background and Bortle 7 as far as visible stars. Did a final focus while on target rather than on a bright nearby star.
Imaged 44 X 3 minutes (with 2 frames disgarded), unbinned, -5C, 120 gain, 1 sec guiding. Guiding remained rock steady throughout the imaging session, which ran from 22:00 – 00:10.
The results were a surprise!
- IC 1396 full frame technicolor s.jpg (1.98 MiB) Viewed 339 times
It’s in glorious Technicolor with every hue in the paint set! That is not light impingement on the east side as there’s nebulous detail there. Can’t find anything like this online. Most posted images have all nebulosity in shades of red.
Stars are small and they have processed down to pinpoints. Cropping down to the Elephant’s Trunk itself:
- IC 1396 8X11 enlarged s.jpg (1.11 MiB) Viewed 339 times
hgp
IC 1396A – The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula
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 centered upon the dark, dense globule IC 1396A (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 the 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.
The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is thought to be a site of star formation. Two stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these stars may have emptied the cavity.
Wishing Star Observatory Barrington RI USA
22:00 – 00:10hrs, July 22 & 23, 2022
Imaged 44 X 3 minutes (with 2 frames disgarded), unbinned, -5C, 120 gain, 1 sec guiding.
14” Meade LX200GPS equipped with f/2 Hyperstar and ASI 2600MC-P camera