IC 1396 - The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula

IC 1396, better known as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, is an emission nebula located about 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. As I’m writing this, Cepheus is clearly visible from my balcony, which made this target an ideal choice to capture once again.

The nebula gets its nickname from a long, dark, winding column of dense gas and dust that resembles the trunk of an elephant. This structure is shaped by intense radiation and strong stellar winds from nearby young stars in the open cluster Trumpler 37, which lies within the nebula itself.

Back in 2023, I created my first image of IC 1396 using my WO Redcat 51 MK2.5 telescope and an Optolong L-eNhance filter. Honestly, I wasn’t very satisfied with the final result. I made a small but important mistake... my focus was completely off. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about both this nebula and astrophotography in general.

I noticed that some astrophotographers used only RGB filters for this object, and I really wanted to try that myself. Especially the hole in the trunk with the two yellow stars looks amazing in broadband images. So here it is! My latest version of IC 1396, the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, captured with a more natural broadband look using the L-Pro light pollution filter, without relying on the typical HOO palette.

Here is a close-up of the trunk itself. From top to bottom, the entire dark column of gas and dust measures roughly 20 light-years in length. That’s 189,200,000,000,000 km!

Acquisition details:

Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

Bortle: 5

Optolong L-Pro lights:
10hr 51min
217x 180sec

Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-Pro

IC 410 - The Tadpole Nebula

IC 410 commonly known as the Tadpole Nebula, is an emission nebula situated about 12,000 light-years away from our planet. Located in the constellation Auriga. Auriga was seen right above my balcony this winter and that made this nebula a perfect target for me to capture! IC 410 gets its nickname from the two long, dark structures of gas and dust within the nebula that resemble tadpoles. These tadpoles are actually dense regions of gas being sculpted by intense radiation and stellar wind from young stars in the nearby star cluster NGC 1893, which lies embedded inside the nebula.

This nebula is known for its active star-forming regions, where new stars are continually being born from the surrounding clouds of gas and dust.

Using Seti Astro’s ‘What’s in My Image’ script, I also found something special in my image, two carbon stars. Carbon stars are a special type of red giant star whose atmospheres contain more carbon than oxygen. And because of this, the stars have a deep orange appearance. I consider stars like these to be hidden gems, and they’re fun to find in my work, just like white dwarfs, Wolf-Rayet stars and pulsars.

For this image, I used the same color palette as my image of NGC 281 - the Pacman Nebula. The HOO (Ha, OIII) color palette, which is great to bring out fine details in nebula and it gives a really good contrast between Ha and OIII.

Acquisition details:

Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

Bortle: 5

Optolong L-eNhance lights:
6hr 35min
79x 300sec

Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance

IC 405 - The Flaming Star Nebula

IC 405 – The Flaming Star Nebula. With my previous camera, the ZWO ASI294MC Pro, I always struggled to find a field of view that did this object justice. But now, with the ZWO ASI2600MC AIR and its larger sensor, the entire nebula fits beautifully into one frame.

Since we're talking about a “flaming star,” I thought it would be fitting to process the image using the Foraxx color palette. Thanks to my Optolong L-eNhance dualband filter, I was able to isolate the necessary emission lines to make the colors really stand out.

The Flaming Star Nebula is located about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Auriga. It's a combination of both emission and reflection nebulae, meaning it both glows from ionized gas excited by nearby stars and reflects light from surrounding starlight. At the heart of the nebula is the star AE Aurigae, a runaway star believed to have been ejected from the Orion Nebula region. As AE Aurigae moves through the surrounding gas and dust, it energizes the nebula, creating the striking fiery appearance that gives IC 405 its name.

Acquisition details:

Optolong L-eNhance lights:
4hr 30min
54x 300sec

Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

Bortle: 5

Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI2600MC AIR
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance

IC 434 - The Horsehead Nebula

The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most iconic dark nebulae in the night sky, located in the constellation Orion, around 1,375 light-years away. Its distinctive horse-shaped silhouette stands out dramatically against a glowing background of ionized gas, making it one of my favorite targets. For this image, I used the Optolong L-Pro filter to enhance contrast and bring out the dusty dark details of the surrounding regions. I chose to present the Hydrogen Alpha areas in vibrant magenta to highlight the dramatic structure around the nebula and give the scene an extra sense of depth and color contrast. The result is a colorful and dynamic view of this famous deep-sky object.

Acquisition details:

Optolong L-Pro lights:
3hr 37min
79x 180sec

Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

Bortle: 5

Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-Pro

IC 5070 - The Pelican Nebula

NGC 7000, also known as the North America Nebula, and IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula, are two beautiful emission nebulae located in the constellation Cygnus, about 2,600 light-years away. The North America Nebula’s shape resembles the continent of North America, while the Pelican Nebula looks like a pelican with its head and beak, (I don’t think it looks like that at all haha).

For this image, I used the Hubble color palette, where Hydrogen Alpha is represented in orange-gold and Oxygen III in blue-cyan. This color choice brings out the stunning contrast between the different gas regions in the nebulae.

I was thrilled that this image was later chosen as the cover for the Sterrenstof Podcast astronomical calendar for 2024, a nice recognition of the effort put into capturing this beautiful scene, and it was also the first time my work got published!

Acquisition details:

Optolong L-eNhance lights:
3hr 10min
38x 300sec

Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

Bortle: 5

Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance

IC 63 - The Ghost of Cassiopeia

IC 63, also known as the Ghost of Cassiopeia, is a beautifully eerie emission and reflection nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia. What makes this object especially striking is the bright star nearby, Gamma Cassiopeiae, also known as Navi, which illuminates the nebula and gives it its ghostly glow.

The nebula is a mix of glowing hydrogen gas and reflected starlight, creating a haunting shape that seems to drift through space. Its unique form and vivid colors make it a rewarding, though challenging, target to capture.

This was also the first time I used the new MARS tool in PixInsight. It made a big difference in processing, as the sensor blotches from my ZWO ASI294MC Pro were completely removed for the first time, resulting in a much cleaner and more detailed image.

Acquisition details:

Optolong L-eNhance lights:
5hr 25min
65x 300sec

Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Biases

Bortle: 5

Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance