IC 1396 |
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| IC 1396 is a large emission nebula in the
constellation of Cepheus (The King). This object is 3 degrees,
or 6 full moons, wide! Since it is estimated to be 3,000 light
years away, that makes this cloud hundreds of light-years wide!
The huge nebulosity is very faint, but the star clusters
associated with it are pretty bright and can be seen with the
naked eye in a dark site far from big cities. This object
contains not just huge clouds of glowing ionized gases, but also
dark dust clouds sculpted into interesting comet-like shapes by
the intense stellar winds and radiation from the stars embedded
within. IC 1396 first came to my attention as a large object in an inexpensive version of TheSky that came with one of my telescope purchases back in 2000. I was intrigued by the enormity of this object and gave my 8" GOTO scope the command to aim at the target. As would be expected, I saw no sign of its nebulosity, but I did see some of the star clusters associated with it. |
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| Constellation: Cepheus | ||
| When Visible: August - January | ||
| Distance: 3,000 Light-years | ||
| Date: July - August 2007 | ||
| Location: West Chester, Ohio | ||
| Exposure Details:
H-alpha: 14 x 30 minutes Binned 1x1 (mapped to Green in Hubble Palette) SII: 20 x 30 minutes Binned 1x1 (mapped to Red in Hubble Palette) OIII: 19 x 30 minutes Binned 1x1 (mapped to Blue in Hubble Palette) |
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| Equipment Used: Takahashi FSQ-106N on a Takahashi EM200 Temma-PC mount. SBIG STL-6303 camera with 8-position filter wheel and Astrodon narrowband filters. Externally guided with an SBIG Remote Guide Head on a Borg 45ED refractor. | ||
| Acquisition Software : MaximDL, TheSky6, CCDAutopilot | ||
| Processing Software: MaximDL, Photoshop CS, IrFanView | ||
| Older version: 2005 Version of "Elephant Trunk Nebula" region. Takahashi FS-102 on a Takahashi EM200 Temma-2 Mount. SBIG ST-8XE with Custom-Scientific H-alpha Filter. |
