Daniel Gaussen
The Elephant Trunk Nebula
Canon 600d (astromod)
Skywatcher Equinox ED80 APO
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro tracking mount (unguided)
Short 2 min sub exposures adding to 30 min in total
Stacked in DeepSky Stacker
Processed in Photoshop CS6
Situated about 2,400 light years away (that's aprox. fourteen thousand trillion miles....!!!!) the Elephant Trunk Nebula is an interstellar gas and dust cloud residing within our galaxy in the constellation Cepheus.
The name is due to a small part of the nebula resembling the nose of the Elephant, it can be seen just to the right and above the center of my image. This area of gas has been ionised by the large blue star toward the centre, the radiation this star emits is absorbed by the atoms and molecules in the cloud which then become excited and consequently emit radiation themselves to reduce their energy states, making them glow in IR and visible light.
This again is an image that I need to do much longer exposures on to really pull out any real detail in the nebula, however you can make out the structure of the trunk and i thought i would put it up non the less as i still think its pretty.
Keep looking up!
The Elephant Trunk Nebula
Canon 600d (astromod)
Skywatcher Equinox ED80 APO
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro tracking mount (unguided)
Short 2 min sub exposures adding to 30 min in total
Stacked in DeepSky Stacker
Processed in Photoshop CS6
Situated about 2,400 light years away (that's aprox. fourteen thousand trillion miles....!!!!) the Elephant Trunk Nebula is an interstellar gas and dust cloud residing within our galaxy in the constellation Cepheus.
The name is due to a small part of the nebula resembling the nose of the Elephant, it can be seen just to the right and above the center of my image. This area of gas has been ionised by the large blue star toward the centre, the radiation this star emits is absorbed by the atoms and molecules in the cloud which then become excited and consequently emit radiation themselves to reduce their energy states, making them glow in IR and visible light.
This again is an image that I need to do much longer exposures on to really pull out any real detail in the nebula, however you can make out the structure of the trunk and i thought i would put it up non the less as i still think its pretty.
Keep looking up!