The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is a dense, elongated dark globule embedded within the large emission nebula IC 1396 in Cepheus. Intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from the nearby massive O-type star HD 206267 (in the young cluster Trumpler 37) sculpt the bright-rimmed pillar, compressing the gas and triggering the formation of embedded protostars and Herbig–Haro objects along the trunk (SIMBAD IC 1396A).

At a distance of roughly 2,400 light-years (IC 1396 overview), the Elephant’s Trunk itself spans on the order of ~20 light-years, while the parent H II region covers more than 3° of sky in deep images (Elephant’s Trunk Nebula). Visually the region is subtle from most sites and benefits from dark skies and narrowband (Hα/O III) filters. Look for IC 1396 near the iconic red supergiant μ Cephei in the King’s constellation (Cepheus).

Total image time was 7.5 hours.

References: SIMBAD: IC 1396, SIMBAD: IC 1396A (Elephant’s Trunk), SIMBAD: HD 206267, Wikipedia: IC 1396, Wikipedia: Elephant’s Trunk Nebula.

IC 13965 (also known as the Elephant Trunk Nebula) is according to Wikipedia, 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. It is 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 1396. 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.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	82@1200 sec (27 hours)
ISO	3200
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Images taken using Kstars on an Mele Quieter 3C under Unbuntu 22.04.3
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2022-10-18 and earlier sessions
PixInsight Processing	WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script Dynamic Crop Dynamic Background Extraction Image Solver Script SpectrophotometricColorCalibration BlurXTerminator NoiseXTerminator HistogramTransformation CurvesTransformation

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=IC_1396-9.jpg Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300 https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=masterLight_BIN_1_8256x5504_EXPOSURE_1200_00s_FILTER_LPR_combined_RGB_autocrop_7__RGB_combination_DBE.jpg Click on the image to view it at full resolution,
then click again for actual size.

IC 13965 (also known as the Elephant Trunk Nebula) is according to Wikipedia, 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. It is 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 1396. 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.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	60@1200 sec (20 hours)
ISO	3200
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Images taken using Kstars on an Mele Quieter 3C under Unbuntu 22.04.3
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2022-10-02 and earlier sessions
PixInsight Processing	WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script Dynamic Crop Dynamic Background Extraction Image Solver Script SpectrophotometricColorCalibration BlurXTerminator NoiseXTerminator GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch BlurXTerminator

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=masterLight_BIN_1_8256x5504_EXPOSURE_1200_00s_FILTER_LPR_combined_RGB_autocrop_7__RGB_combination_DBE.jpg Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300 https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=masterLight_BIN_1_8256x5504_EXPOSURE_1200_00s_FILTER_LPR_combined_RGB_autocrop_1__RGB_combination_DBE.jpg Click on the image to view it at full resolution,
then click again for actual size.

IC 13965 (also known as the Elephant Trunk Nebula) is according to Wikipedia, 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. It is 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 1396. 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.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	27@1200 sec (9 hours)
ISO	3200
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Images taken using Kstars on an Mele Quieter 3C under Unbuntu 22.04.3
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2022-09-26 and earlier sessions
PixInsight Processing	WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script Dynamic Crop Dynamic Background Extraction Image Solver Script SpectrophotometricColorCalibration BlurXTerminator NoiseXTerminator GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch BlurXTerminator

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=masterLight_BIN_1_8256x5504_EXPOSURE_1200_00s_FILTER_LPR_combined_RGB_autocrop_1__RGB_combination_DBE.jpg Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300 https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=Master_68x2.jpg The Elephant Trunk Nebula IC 1386 is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away. 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 above the Trunk in this image.

A total of 21.2 hours exposure.

Exposure	18@900 sec + 50@1200 sec = 21.2 hours
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Field of View	2.08 x 1.37 deg
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-09-06 - 2020-10-15
PixInsight Processing	WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script 2x Drizzle Integration Dynamic Crop Automatic Background Extractor ColourCalibration (both saturation and hue) MultiscaleLinearTransform HistogramTransform CurvesTransformation LocalHistogramEquilization ColourProfile Separation into artificial Ha, Sii and Oiii and processed to create a pseudo HST pallette based on the video by Cuiv, The Lazy Geek's "Dual Band Filtering for Colour Cameras".
Further tweaking for colour in Lightroom

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=Master_68x2.jpg Fri, 16 Oct 2020 20:43:25 -0300 https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=Ha-Oiii-Sii-Lum_starReduc-2.jpg The Elephant Trunk Nebula IC 1386 is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away. 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 above the Trunk in this image.

A total of 11.9 hours exposure.

Exposure	17@900 sec + 23@1200 sec = 11.9 hours
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-09-06 - 2020-10-11
PixInsight Processing	WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script 2x Drizzle Integration Dynamic Crop Automatic Background Extractor ColourCalibration (both saturation and hue) MultiscaleLinearTransform HistogramTransform CurvesTransformation LocalHistogramEquilization ColourProfile Separation into artificial Ha, Sii and Oiii and processed to create a pseudo HST pallette.
Further tweaking for colour in Lightroom

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=Ha-Oiii-Sii-Lum_starReduc-2.jpg Wed, 14 Oct 2020 00:13:10 -0300 https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=Image12.jpg The Elephant Trunk Nebula IC 1386 is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away. 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 above the Trunk in this image.

A total of 9.5 hours exposure.

Exposure	15@900 sec + 16@1200 sec = 9.5 hours
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-09-06 - 2020-10-09
PixInsight Processing	WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script Dynamic Crop Automatic Background Extractor ColourCalibration (both saturation and hue) MultiscaleLinearTransform HistogramTransform CurvesTransformation LocalHistogramEquilization ColourProfile Separation into artificial Ha, Sii and Oiii and processed to create a pseudo HST pallette.
Further tweaking for colour in Lightroom

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Nebulae/IC-1396-Elephant-Trunk-Nebula&image=Image12.jpg Sat, 10 Oct 2020 23:33:13 -0300