Elephant Trunk Nebula in Cepheus
Characteristics:
Magnitude: Unknown.
Size: Roughly about 45 arcminutes (Elephant Trunk itself). The
Elephant Trunk is located within the faint IC1396 emission nebula,
which is about 3 degrees across.
Distance: 2,450 light years
RA: 21h 35m 37s
Dec: 57degrees 24' 03"
Description:
The Elephant Trunk Nebula is located within the large IC1396 emission
nebula complex. This beautiful area of hydrogen gas and dust is a
stellar nursery that holds many young nascent stars. The top
region of the Elephant Trunk (on the right side of this image) is being
blown away by radiation emitted
from new-born stars that
are igniting deep within the nebula.
Although the dark gas and
dust are opaque to visible light, infrared light passes through this
region easily, permitting a view of the inner workings of the Elephant
Trunk. Please click here
for an infrared view of this area taken through the Space InfraRed
Telescope Facility (SIRTF), now known
as the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Photographic Details:
Date: June 26, 2005.
Scope: Takahashi
FS-102 at f6 with TOA-130 focal reducer, on the G11 Losmandy
Mount.
Autoguider: SBIG STV with
e-finder.
Camera: Maxcam CM10.
Filter: AstroDon Ha
filter (6 nm bandpass).
Exposures (unbinned): 15 x 15' each. Total
exposure 3.75 hours.
Conditions: Very hazy, very hot,
below average
transparency; average seeing; a mild breeze.
Image
Processing: Calibrated
subs were debloomed with Ron Wodaski's Debloomer software, and then
aligned in Registar. Sigma combined using RC Sigma Reject
MaximDL, followed by DDP
in ImagesPlus (IP). Levels,
curves, high-pass sharpening in Photoshop CS (16
bit format).
Please
note: Graphics on this website may not be reproduced without
author permission.
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