This is IC1396, which is about 2400 light years away, located in the constellation Cepheus. The "Elephant's Trunk Nebula" is in the upper left quadrant of the nebula and is thought to be a site of star formation.

This is a false color composition using Ha(Ha+OIII)OIII. I like the orange/brown color around the outside. I thought that this composition showed the most detail for the data that I collected.

I started imaging this on 6/17 and didn't have a chance to finish it until 7/5 and 7/6. I used the best %80 of each night, totaling 10.5 hours. Each night was stacked individually, and the three resulting files where stacked again using averaging. I decided to stack with that method because the seeing conditions were not as good on 7/5 and 7/6 compared to 6/17. The haze was really detrimental to image quality. I was concerned that sigma stacking would have thrown out too much high quality data from the much better first night.

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/k2nexw/

Total integration time: 10h 30minutes

Location: Southern Maryland, USA (Bortle 5-6)

Dates: 06/17/2021, 07/05/2021, 07/06/2021

==Gear==

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

Imaging Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 61 II APO

Field Flattener: William Optics Flat 61A

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro

LP Filter: Optolong L-eNhance

Guide Scope: ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM

Auto Focuser: ZWO EAF

==Acquisition==

Light Frames: 83x300" (6h 55') (gain: 100.00) -10C

43x300" (3h 35') (gain: 100.00) -5C

Dark Frames: 1 master frame (30 x 300s) -10C, 30 gain 100 -10C

33 x 300s gain 100 -5C

Bias Frames: 0

Flat Frames: 32 each night

Flat Darks: 32 each night

==Stacking==

DSS stacked(Kappa sigma) each night individually, 80% best

DSS Stacked average of nightly stacked output

==Processing==

StarTools:

Autodev, Crop, Wipe, Contrast, HDR, Sharpen, Deconvolution, Color, Tighten Stars, Dim stars, Super Structure, Noise reduction

Affinity Photo:

Levels, Curves

10 x 8 min exposures. ISO 1600. +darks/flats/bias.

Optics:

Canon 5d mkIV.

AT111EDT (f7) w/ Field Flattener

Guiding:

Astrophysics 600EGTO

Orion Shorty 80mm

QHY 5L-II Mono

Software:

lin_guider

PixInsight 1.8

Lightroom

Scope/Mount: Orion ED80 Doublet Refractor with AstroTech AT2FF Field Flattener, Celestron CI-700 Mount

Camera: Orion StarShoot Pro V2 one-shot color

Guiding: QHY5L-IIM through Orion Deluxe OAG, PHD guiding software

Exposure: (24) 10 min

Software: Nebulosity, PhotoShop CS2

Comment: 10-14-2017, Tierra del Sol, CA, moderate wind, some hazy clouds.

www.astrobin.com/users/MarkEby/

My god this is tough!

I was going to leave this alone, having deleted my last miserable attempt at reprocessing it, until I saw this.

Miku's excellent effort is half the exposure time at half the iso - that was a red rag to a bull. :)

So I've come up with this. Not as good as Miku's, but better (I think) than my last effort.

Nikon D70 full spectrum, 55-200 Nikkor at 175mm (cropped), f6.3, 1600iso, Baader Neodymium filter.

20 x 4 min and 20 x 5 min subs for a total of 3 hours, unguided EQ5

Darks (not enough), flats and bias

Stacked and processed in DSS and CS5, with a little help from Noel's tools.

Bit blotchy in places, but it'll do until I can get out there yet again.

Yes, it has spikes, but I bought Noel's tools, so I'm gonna use them! :)

Capture Details -

Date: September 13, 2023

Bortle Class 5 backyard, SF Bay Area (East Bay)

Capture: 10 x 600s Ha, 8 x 900s Oiii and 6 x 900s Sii, Dithered

Telescope: Askar 107PHQ

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro

ZWO EFW 7x36mm

Astronomik 6nm Narrowband Filters, 36mm

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM mini

ZWO OAG-L

Mount: iOptron GEM45

Calibrated with Darks, Flats and Dark Flats

ZWO ASIAIR Plus Control and Capture

Processed with DSS and Photoshop CC

Date / Location: 12 July 2023 / Washington D.C.

Equipment:

Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8

OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset

Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC

Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm mini

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Light Pollution Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme Dual Bandpass

Processing Software: PixInsight

Processing Steps:

Up to and including the use of Star Xterminator to decompose the processed image into a Starless image and a Stars only image the steps are identical to the processing steps applied previously to create the IC 1396 image in www.flickr.com/photos/vasu-jagannathan/53041975750/in/alb....

The difference between the previous image and the present one is the elimination of the cumbersome steps of decomposing the RGB image into individual channels and recombining them with different weighting parameters as determined by experimentation. Instead, I used Narrowband Normalization and a Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch as follows:

Starless image > Color Calibration > Narrowband Normalization > HOO Palette > Create an H alpha file (using blend mode 2, default blend amount and an OIII boost of 0.500) and an OIII file (using mode 1, a blend amount of 0.650 and an OIII boost of 2.000).

Intensity Transformation > Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch > Apply to the H alpha file and the OIII file from above.

Pixel Math > 60% Stretched H alpha file + 40% Stretched OIII file.

Apply Curves Transformation to taste.

Use Pixel Math to combine the processed image from above with the Stars only Image to get a Rejoined Image.

Rejoined Image > Topaz DeNoise AI > Topaz Gigapixel AI.

Use Pixel Math to combine 25% of the Rejoined Image with 75% of the Topaz AI Image to get a final image.

IC1396 - Hubble Palette Narrowband

Takahashi CCA-250

Apogee U16M

Reprocessed here.

IC 1396 is a star cluster surrounded by an area of (very faint, I discovered) nebulosity in the constellation Cepheus, about 2,400 light years away. The area contains the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, which you can't see clearly in the above image, but it is in there somewhere! The bright orange star to the left is the red supergiant Mu Cephei (μ Cephei), also known as Herschel's Garnet Star (garnet from the colour), and is one of the biggest and most luminous stars in our galaxy. It is 1650 times larger than our sun, and if placed where our sun is, it's radius would extend between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. It's a big fella!

This is the first iteration, and I will no doubt have several goes at this. One of the most difficult I've had to process, for three hours total exposure the noise was horrendous, and the signal weak. I'm sure there's more there, but I was constantly struggling against the noise and the most appalling colour gradients I've ever seen! First time I've managed 5 minute subs unguided, which is a result.

Nikon D70 full spectrum, 55-200 Nikkor at 175mm (cropped), f6.3, 1600iso, Baader Neodymium filter.

20 x 4 min and 20 x 5 min subs for a total of 3 hours (longest I've done so far), unguided EQ5

Darks, flats and bias

Stacked and processed in DSS and CS5, with a little help from Noel's tools.

Second iteration to follow once I've got rid of my headache and got about five hours to kill :)

ASI183MM Pro

SvBony503 80ED

62x180s @ Ha

30x300s @ O3

Over 3 Nights with 2/3 Moon. Stacked and combined with Siril and edited with Photoshop.

While I was about it thought I'd have another crack at this. Not quite as contrived as my previous version (which was hugely contrived ;) ). This is full frame, more or less.

Nikon D70 modded, 55-200 Nikkor at 175mm, f6.3, 1600iso, Baader Neodymium filter.

20 x 4 min and 20 x 5 min subs for a total of 3 hours, unguided EQ5

Darks, flats and bias

Stacked and processed in DSS and CS5, with a little help from Noel's tools.

Quick shot of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula & surrounding area. Located approximately 2400 light years from Earth.

Exposure: 62 x 30s exposures @ ISO3200 equiv. Darks & bias/offset, no flats.

Camera: Canon EOS 60Da

Lens: EF 70-200mm 1:4 L USM @ f/4.5. 200mm (x1.6).

Filters: Astronomik CLS

Mount: Piggy-backed on 8" Meade LX10. Rough polar alignment.

Guiding: None

RAW images stacked in DeepSkyStacker, processed in PSPx5.

Only 55 minutes worth of data, but i think it's okay enough to publish here. No filters used (only astromod nikon). PP in PI

This is part of the extensive emission nebula IC 1396 in Cepheus some 2400 light-years from Earth. The prominent star at lower left is the variable mu Cephei, Herschel's celebrated Garnet Star.

I used my TS 65mm f/6.5 Quadruplet for this image coupled to an astromodified Canon 1100D with an Astronomik CLS-CCD filter on an unguided Vixen GP mount. It's a stack of 18 3-minute ISO3200 exposures (54-minutes total) with dark frame subtraction.

I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't notice the focus slipped early into the exposure sequence. A real shame as it was a transparent night with little dew! I lost a lot of fine detail as a consequence and I've used harsh processing to bring out the Elephant's Trunk Nebula (middle top). I intend to do this object justice next time.

Hubble pallette,

LRGB

R as SII+.1Ha

G as Ha

B as OIII+ .1Ha

Ha 1200 seconds (4)

OIII and SII 1500 seconds (7)

SBIG ST2K

TeleVue Genesis 100mm @f/5

Pixinsight

Used the Ha to "juice up" the other two channels...and I am not sure it was the best call.

It allows more flexibility in adjusting R and B where signal is weak.

On the other hand high signal areas (around the trunk) become "blown out" and are seen as white.

About the Nebula:

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust with-in the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 (located in the constellation Cepheus), about 2,400 light-years away from Earth.

Reprocessing old data:

I don't often do this, but decided to reprocess old data from 2017 in the SHO Palette (SII, Hα & OIII). IC 1396 was imaged on my first "budget friendly" Telescope (a 6" GSO Newtonian Astrograph). This was one of my first attempts at Narrowband Astrophotography, and the data that I captured back then was less than ideal, but a nice challenge to process. It is all part of the never ending lifelong learning experience.

I would like to revisit the IC 1396 region again, and image the very interesting surrounding structure with my wide-field APO Refractor Telescope. It is interesting to look back and see what you've learnt (which is why I've always kept my old learning images as a record).

Wavelengths of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Light:

Hydrogen-Alpha (656.3nm)

Oxygen-III (500.7nm)

Sulfur-II (672.4nm)

Astrometry Info:

Center RA, Dec: 323.737, 57.633

Center RA, hms: 21h 34m 56.951s

Center Dec, dms: +57° 37' 59.617"

Size: 46.8 x 60.6 arcmin

Radius: 0.638 deg

Pixel scale: 2.02 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: Up is 269 degrees E of N

View an Annotated Sky Chart of this image.

View this image in the WorldWideTelescope.

Processing:

Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight, and finished in Photoshop (Starnet++ was also handy).

Martin

-

Original image:

www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/50477763043

Here's my second attempt to capture more of the emission nebula IC 1396 in Cepheus, some 2400 light-years distant. This time I concentrated on the so-called Elephant's Trunk Nebula region.

As before, I used my TS 65mm f/6.5 Quadruplet for this image coupled to an astromodified Canon 1100D with an Astronomik CLS-CCD filter on an unguided Vixen GP mount. It's a stack of 19 3-minute ISO3200 exposures (57-minutes total), but without dark frame subtraction as my camera's battery was exhausted before I could capture them!

While it's a little grainier than I'd like owing to the lack of dark frames, at least the focus was perfect this time.

Date: September 13, 2023

Bortle Class 5 backyard, SF Bay Area (East Bay)

Capture: 10 x 600s Ha, 8 x 900s Oiii and 6 x 900s Sii, Dithered

Telescope: Askar 107PHQ

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro

ZWO EFW 7x36mm

Astronomik 6nm Narrowband Filters, 36mm

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM mini

ZWO OAG-L

Mount: iOptron GEM45

Calibrated with Darks, Flats and Dark Flats

ZWO ASIAIR Plus Control and Capture

Processed with DSS and Photoshop CC

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope image of a glowing stellar nursery, taken in infrared (IR) light provides a spectacular contrast to the opaque cloud seen in visible light (inset). The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is an elongated dark globule within the emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation of Cepheus.

Located at a distance of 2,450 light-years, the globule is a condensation of dense gas that is barely surviving the strong ionizing radiation from a nearby massive star. The globule is being compressed by the surrounding ionized gas. The dark globule is seen in silhouette at visible-light wavelengths, backlit by the illumination of a bright star located to the left of the field of view.

The Spitzer Space Telescope pierces through the obscuration to reveal the birth of new protostars, or embryonic stars, and previously unseen young stars. The infrared image, which transforms the dark cloud into a 'flying dragon,' was obtained by Spitzer's infrared array camera. The image is a four-color composite of invisible light, showing emissions from wavelengths of 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8.0 microns (red).

This image was captured on 5 November 2003.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/W. Reach (SSC/Caltech) [source].

This is an attempt at showing some more detail in the Elephant's Trunk Nebula of IC 1396 in Cepheus, some 2400 light-years away. I reverted to my 6-inch f/5 custom-built Schmidt-Newtonian on the Vixen GP mount for just 15 2-minute unguided exposures at ISO3200. Cloud prevented me imaging for any longer, which is a great shame as the transparency was good.

Sorry to keep imaging the same things over and over !

This is about as far as I can drag this...

The OIII is so weak its adding noise like crazy,but color wise its not doing much at all...

So its really just a red (Ha) image...with a layer of noise on top.

Partially clipped to reduce sky noise on left.

Big fat blob from not using flats...(yet)

Stars not corrected...just too lousy to bother.

3 days of rain forecast...

79x2m (2.6hrs) unguided ISO800

Canon 450D & Skywatcher 150PDS

IC 1396 è un ammasso aperto molto sparso associato a una vasta nebulosa diffusa, visibile nella costellazione boreale di Cefeo; si trova in un tratto di Via Lattea parzialmente oscurato da densi banchi di nebulose oscure, in una regione galattica ricca di polveri e gas neutri con associate stelle giovani e calde di colore blu. (Wikipedia)

E' un oggetto che non mi aspettavo così ostico, ho fatto 20 pose da 7 minuti ma probabilmente ha bisogno di maggiore integrazione per evidenziare meglio le varie nebulosità.

Telescopi o obiettivi di acquisizione: SkyWatcher ED 80//600

Camere di acquisizione: Canon 1100D

Montature: SkyWatcher NEQ6 Pro

Telescopi o obiettivi di guida: SkyWatcher 70/500

Camere di guida: Skywatcher Synguider 2

Riduttori di focale: SkyWatcher Reducer 0.85

Software: Pleiades Astrophoto S.L. PixInsight V1.8

Risoluzione: 3200x2122

Date: 17 luglio 2015

Pose: 20x420" ISO800

Integrazione: 2.3 ore

Dark: ~13

Flat: ~25

Bias: ~31

TSA-120

AP 900GTO

25x300s Ha

45x300s OIII

45x300s SII

ASI1600MM-PRO + 130PDS

(Woolwich, London - 2018/10/22 - 2018/11/02)

Just too many mind blowing color options here....

Over the top...?

I like it.

View Large On Black ?

Object: IC1396 - The Elephant's Trunk Nebula

Optics: Celestron HD1100 (11" Aplantic Schmidt-Cassegrain @ f/10)

Detector: Apogee U16M

Mount: Celestron CGE Pro

Acquired with Maxim DL, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, post-processed in Photoshop CS5

This NASA Spitzer Space Telescope image reveals a glowing stellar nursery embedded within the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, an elongated dark globule within the emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation of Cepheus. Located at a distance of 2,450 light-years, the globule is a condensation of dense gas that is barely surviving the strong ionizing radiation from a nearby massive star. The globule is being compressed by the surrounding ionized gas.

The Spitzer Space Telescope pierces through the obscuration to reveal the birth of new protostars, or embryonic stars, and previously unseen young stars. The infrared image was obtained by Spitzer's infrared array camera and is a four-color composite of invisible light, showing emissions from wavelengths of 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange) and 8.0 microns (red). The filamentary appearance of the globule results from the sculpting effects of competing physical processes. The winds from a massive star, located to the left of the image, produce a dense circular rim comprising the 'head' of the globule and a swept-back tail of gas.

A pair of young stars (LkHa 349 and LkHa 349c) that formed from the dense gas has cleared a spherical cavity within the globule head. While one of these stars is significantly fainter than the other in visible-light images, they are of comparable brightness in the infrared Spitzer image. This implies the presence of a thick and dusty disc around LkHa 349c. Such circumstellar discs are the precursors of planetary systems. They are much thicker in the early stages of stellar formation when the placental planet-forming material (gas and dust) is still present.

Testing my new toy, - EdgeHD925 @F7 :)

SHO - 200min each filter (Antlia 3nm).

Looks impressive :)

However, - guiding was a complete disaster....

Should be able to do better with stars!

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula in Cepheus, imaged with S2/Ha/O3 filters with an 80-mm refractor. Hubble palette. 11.3 h total exposure (2.0h Ha, 3.9h O3, 5.4h S2).

What a striking visual spectacle! Gotta love the interplay of dark and light regions within the #ElephantsTrunkNebula, which are so dramatic and picturesque. If you aim to capture this beauty and appreciate the intricate details and vibrant colors, long exposures using narrowband filters are the way to go.

My reprocessed starless image helped me dive deeper into PixInsight’s range selection tool and curves transformation, as well as the masking tool in Lightroom. More images are on my Instagram page: Astro_Chroma. Clear skies!

IC 1369 Elephants Trunk Nebula

Canon 7Da

Optolong L-enhance

Location: St.Pölten, Bortle 4-5

3h19min(50x240)

HEQ5 Pro

IC 1396 ist die Bezeichnung eines offenen Sternhaufens, eingebettet in einen Emissionsnebel im Sternbild Kepheus.

Auf dem Foto ist ein Teil dieses Nebels sichtbar und wird wegen seiner Form auch Elefanten-Rüssel-Nebel genannt.

Canon EOS 40D Hutech modifiziert

Borg 101 ED, TSFlat2 Flatterer

640 mm, 8 x 420 Sec, 1250 ISO

28. September 2008, Sternwarte Simplon-Adler

Last call for this...

Moving back to NGC6888

Star color is shocking

Tired of looking at it in this heat..........

Around 24 frames,360 seconds,ISO800

The "blobs" persist...(on the lite frames)

rotating camera rotates blobs...

New flats help+++ (Duh...)

Need a moonless night to do final imaging,with camera oriented to get the whole object...maybe push up exposure..."Kappa Sigma" stacking works a treat !

"GrayCstoration" is making my bright stars look funky...helps noise though...

View Large On Black ?

HA false colour, Binned 2x2, 60min combined, 10 min subs, SXVM25C camera,

My friend Mark Bristows scope and mount, Orion SPX200 f4.5 Newtonian. Skywatcher EQ6Pro Mount, 80mm Revelation guide scope, SX Lodestar guider. 26-06-08.

Elephant's trunk nebula VdB 142 in the large nebula IC 1396 in the constellation Cepheus. Taken through an 18" F/4.5 Newtonian telescope with the SBIG ST-2000XM ccd camera. Mosaic of two images each, 30 minutes Ha plus 20 minutes each of LRGB exposures, 5 minute sub-exposures each. Taken at the Okie-Tex star party 2010.

Mosaic of the region around the Elephant's Trunk nebula (a.k.a. IC1396) taken in H⍺. Each field in this 2 x 2 mosaic was built from stacks of 12-14 x 5 min exposures, and stitching was done using Hugin software. North is up. Taken with the NYAA's Lorenz telescope.

The dark nebula slightly above and to the left of center is Barnard 161, and the smaller ones on the left and bottom left are Barnard 367 and 163.

This oddly named nebula is located some 2,400 light years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. The trunk itself, designated vdB 142, is some 20 light years in length.

希望

我的存在

能成為

幸運的四葉草

摘下的葉子

化作

你的幸福

第二晚拍完夏季銀河後

秋季銀河也想找點東西拍

不過因為事出突然

並沒有好好規劃

就想說先拍去年沒拍好的象鼻試試

不過這次好像也沒拍好就是XD

其實滿暗的不好拍

拍起來就感覺

像是得了Elephantiasis(象皮病)XD

Reprocessing in 2021

Date：2020/8/19

Weather：Cloudy→Clear

Location：

Kunyang, Mount Hehuan, Nantou, Taiwan

Camera：Canon 6D(mod)

Lens/Telescope：Canon 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM

Mount：iOptron CEM40

Parameter：135mm, f/4, ISO3200

Exposure time：3min*52

Dark,Flat,Bias

Software：DSS+PS+Starnet++

Very excited about some new tricks I have (already) learned from chatting in th Pixinsight group.

This is data I have previously worked on....

www.flickr.com/photos/daveh56/5060720177/

(blush)

I use A Trous Wavelet NR on it this time...before any stretch.

Then HDR Wavelet at 10 layers....

Amazing....improvement...

Cannot wait to learn this better.!

Taken with a Canon EOS 40D unmodified, 13x300 second exposures, 100mm @f2.8

IC1396

30 exposures each...6.5 hours.

May reblend some longer ones...

Preliminary result,in transit...

It is definitely smoother...!!

Luc, in DSS, says he has ANOTHER trick for me to try...(top secret )

NB Replaced it with a better quick reprocess...(!!!)

View Large On Black ?

Broadband Image of Elephant's Trunk Nebula Taken with DSLR

D3300

Nikkor AF 300mm 4 ED

ISO 1600

SkyWatcher StarAdventurer

17 x 210 second lights

4 Darks (camera died)

38 Flats

28 Bias

Bortle 2

No Filter

New Moon

Elephant's Trunk nebula

IC1396

This is what happens when you blindly enter a target into the telescope start imaging and walk away. 40 minutes later you realize you missed your target. It correctly centered the scope in the target, but what I really wanted was the Elephant's trunk to the right. Celestron C11 with a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera 8 x 5min exposures through an Optolong L-eNhance filter.

First Ha light for the ASI1600mm Pro. I'll need to add a lot more data, and re-frame this one later.