IC1396a Elephant's Trunk

Aug 9th, 2026

5 h 0 m

Total integration time — 5 hours. Yes, I know that long exposures slightly "burned out" the bright stars, so I had to work on them separately during processing. But the short summer night forces a choice: either preserve the stars or pull out the maximum faint details of the nebula. This time, I chose the nebula.

Jul 30th, 2026

2 h 20 m

After a two-month break since May, the first astrophotography session finally took place. Conditions were far from ideal: a full Moon, bright summer skies, and short astronomical nights, but even under these circumstances, 2 hours and 20 minutes of long-exposure data were collected. The main target of the session was the famous Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) — one of the most recognizable parts of the vast IC 1396 complex in the constellation Cepheus. IC 1396 is located about 2,400 light-years from Earth and is a huge region of ionized hydrogen roughly 100 light-years across. Inside it lies the dense gas and dust structure IC 1396A, named the "Elephant's Trunk" due to its shape — a giant pillar of cold gas and dust about 20 light-years long, where new stars are being born. Despite the challenging shooting conditions, this object once again revealed its incredible beauty — gas clouds, dark dust structures, and regions of active star formation.