Full-resolution image: https://app.astrobin.com/i/u5q68q
Floating in Cepheus, roughly 2,400 light-years away, this is IC 1396, a vast emission nebula over 100 light-years across, ionised by the massive star system HD 206267 at its heart. Snaking through the glow is the Elephant's Trunk: a dense, dark pillar of gas and dust about 20 light-years long, where gravity is forming new stars even as radiation slowly erodes it away.
The whole region spans nearly 3° of sky, or about six full moons side by side. That faint blue "star" to the right isn't a star at all, but PK 100+04.1, a planetary nebula: the glowing shell ejected by a dying star, shining almost entirely in ionised oxygen.
Two more faint objects caught my eye in this frame: a blue, semi-circular cloud near the top, and a red, two-lobed shape to the left of the main nebula. I nearly submitted them as new discoveries, but both turned out to be known planetary nebulae, Cr 1 and StDr 4 (just obscure enough that I'd never crossed paths with them before).
The light in this image left IC 1396 around 374 BC. Back on Earth, Athens had just lost the Peloponnesian War, her Long Walls torn down after her last fleet was destroyed at the Hellespont; Socrates was condemned to death in Athens, while Hippocrates founded his school of medicine on Kos. All of that happened before this light even began its journey.
Acquisition:
- Shot in Bedfordshire, UK, Bortle 5-6
- RGB (Stars): 1h 30min
- SHO: 21h 15min
Equipment:
- ZWO FF65 + 0.75x reducer
- ZWO EAF
- Altair Hypercam 26M
- Altair 7x2" EFW
- Antlia 3nm Pro SHO filters
- Altair ColourPRO LRGB
- SW EQ6R-Pro
- Astromenia 50/200 Guide Scope + ZWO ASI120MM Mini + IR/UV Cut
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