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Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396)

It often happens that a photo of a deep space object does not suggest the common name of the object. That is because the name almost always comes from the object’s appearance to a visual observer. The Elephant’s Trunk (the dark path on the right side of the image) is outlined in a bright region that is about all you can see in most telescopes. Because this is a narrowband image showing hydrogen in red and oxygen in blue-green (if there were any oxygen), the appearance is quite different. The entire region is much larger than what is shown here. […]


Wizard Nebula (NGC7380)

(New version captured July, 2013 – posted here September 2013) One of my first targets with the AP 142 telescope, the Wizard is interesting in that it contains a fair amount of both oxygen and sulfur in addition to the predominant hydrogen. With more OIII and SII data I suspect there would be quite a variety of colors in this image, but it still took special processing to bring out the OIII and SII details and color. The Wizard (NGC 7380) is in Cepheus and about 7,000 light years from Earth.  Look for his hat, nose, and outstretched hands.  There […]