IC1396A The Elephant's Trunk Nebula, HaRGB

The Elephant's Trunk nebula is a concentration of gas and dust located in the constellation Cepheus, ~2,400 light years away. The column of nebulous gas cloud is being ionized and lit up by a massive star inside (picture it inside the round section at the top of the trunk), and is thought to be a site of new star formation.

 

Personally, I like all the dusty, smoky regions surrounding it.

 

I have already attempted this one, but wasn't too happy with the noisiness and colour balance in my first try. So here we are again, this time with much more Hydrogen alpha data (collected 5+ hours, but only used about 3.5 hours worth thanks to clouds and haze).

 

Details:

 

William Optics FLT110 @ f5.6

QHY9 CCD & Canon DSLR

QHY9 = 3.5 hours of Ha exposures (10 mins each) at -30 deg C, Baader 7nm Ha filter

DSLR = 11 x 5min exposures with modified Canon XSI, IDAS LPS filter

Stacked in DeepSkyStacker, Processed in Photoshop CS2

Ha used as Luminance, and Ha also blended into each RGB channel in varying proportions

Taken over two nights in September 2009 from my backyard observatory in Toronto, Canada

 

Done