Elephant's Trunk Nebula, close-up (IC 1396A)
The head of a dust pillar slowly falling apart under the pressure of starlight.
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Buy in the shopAbout the object
At a focal length of almost 2.8 metres the head of the trunk itself is revealed: a sharply defined bright rim where radiation evaporates the gas, and dark threads of dust behind it. Young stars that formed inside the cloud have blown a cavity into its head.
How the image was made
- Captured
- 3 October 2025 (start, several nights)
- Total exposure
- 6 h 25 min (77 × 300 s)
- Camera
- ZWO ASI2400MC Pro
- Focal length
- 2 781 mm
- Mount
- Celestron (ovládač CGEM/CGX)
- Location
- Banská Bystrica, Slovakia (home observatory)
- Calibration & stacking
- Siril 1.4.0-beta4
- Processing
- Adobe Lightroom 8.5.1 (Windows)
Data from the original file’s metadata or from the author.