Ken Walker caught this remarkable image of the Elephant’s Trunk (LDN 1105) in Cepheus with his SVX130T-R. Located approximately 2,400 light-years away from Earth with a diameter between 65 and 160 light-years, this emission nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396. Its bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud being illuminated and ionized by the bright massive star HD 206267, that is just to the east of it.

Details:

Telescope: Stellarvue SVX130T-R

Mount: Paramount MYT Series6 upgrade

Camera: Ds26M

Filter Wheel: Starlight Express

Filters: Chroma 5nm 36mm filters

Software:

• Voyager
• PixInsight

Processing:

• 20x each 1200 SHO
• 90x each 120 RGB

Designations: Elephant’s Trunk, LDN 1105, IC 1396A, Vbd 142.

References:

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, May 8). Elephant’s Trunk Nebula. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%27s_Trunk_Nebula#:~:text=The%20Elephant%27s%20Trunk%20Nebula%20is%20a%20concentration%20of,about%202%2C400%20light%20years%20away%20from%20Earth.%20

ThePlanets.org. (2023, March 28). Elephant’s Trunk Nebula - Facts and Info - The Planets. The Planets. https://theplanets.org/nebula-facts/elephants-trunk-nebula/

APOD: 2017 January 19 - The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula in Cepheus. (n.d.). https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170119.html#:~:text=Also%20known%20as%20vdB%20142%2C%20the%20cosmic,elephant%27s%20trunk%20is%20over%2020%20light-years%20long