Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396)
The whole IC 1396 region in Cepheus – and within it a dark trunk sculpted by starlight.
This photograph is also available in the shop as a full-resolution digital file.
Buy in the shopAbout the object
IC 1396 is a vast region of glowing hydrogen about 2,400 light years away. The Elephant's Trunk (IC 1396A) is a denser pillar of dust being eroded by radiation from a massive star at the centre of the region. Inside the trunk, new stars are forming.
How the image was made
- Captured
- 29 September 2025 (start, several nights)
- Total exposure
- 8 h 45 min (105 × 300 s)
- Camera
- ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
- Focal length
- 449 mm
- Mount
- ZWO AM5N
- 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.