Returning to one of our favourite locations, the April weather north of Dijon, France, still proved to be challenging. In particular, the early morning dew was so pronounced that it was very difficult to combat. Located in the constellation of Cepheus, the Elephant Trunk Nebula is a large (3° x 3°), highly photogenic, hydrogen-alpha emission nebula. It has the designation Sh2-131 but is known as IC 1396, which is technically the designation of the open cluster embedded within it. It is located 2400 ly from Earth, with a diameter of ca. 150 ly, and is now recognised as a site of star formation. This image is based around hydrogen-alpha and sulphur-II emission data. The hydrogen-alpha is mapped to blue-green and the sulphur data to red-yellow.
Celestron RASA 11″
10Micron GM1000 HPS
SIGMA fp (monochrome) / SIGMA fp L (colour)
H-alpha / S-II ultra-fast narrowband filters
30 x 5 mins, ISO 1600, F2.2, 620mm