The Elephant Had Packed Its Trunk!

[cloudsweeper]

4.15am - glanced out of the window - stars!  Woolly hat and fur-lined boots on for the first time in months, then put the ST120 outside because I fancied a bit of hopping and nice, widefield views.  No particular targets in mind.

Had a quick look at The Pleiades - a beautiful sight, not seen for some time, which never fails to please.

Cassiopeia was high in the west, so I aimed at Caph, and - using x30 (2.73deg TFOV) - saw a veritable sea of stars all around it.  Not seen such detail recently on account of light summer evening viewing!  (And using the 8SE with narrower views.)

Swung across to M31 - very bright and clear, not just some pale fuzz.  Paused a while to consider what I was looking at.

Stellarium showed the Elephant's Trunk Nebula in Cepheus, so I headed for that, starting at Alderamin.  There were a number of handy lines of two and three close stars to guide the way, then I got to the star at the centre of the nebula IC 1396 (which includes a dark patch, IC 1396A, the Elephant's Trunk).

The star resolved nicely into three at x60, and I believe one of those is itself HD 206267, a triple, and the ionising source for the nebula.

IC 1396 is more than 3deg, so I switched to x20 to increase the view (and the exit pupil), but saw no nebulosity, with and without filters.  (Needless to say then, the Trunk was out of the question!)

5.45am, getting light, session over, but what beautiful views of dense starfields, and very successful hopping!

Doug.

 

[Nathan UK]

Nice report Doug ?

[Littleguy80]

Great report, Doug. I've certainly never seen the trunk but I'm sure I've picked up faint nebulosity is IC1396. Although I've now seen a few reports from people who haven't been able to see any so I'm starting to question if I actually saw it! Since reading your title, I've had 'Nelly the Elephant' going round and round in my head!

[cloudsweeper]

30 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Great report, Doug. I've certainly never seen the trunk but I'm sure I've picked up faint nebulosity is IC1396. Although I've now seen a few reports from people who haven't been able to see any so I'm starting to question if I actually saw it! Since reading your title, I've had 'Nelly the Elephant' going round and round in my head!

"The head of the herd was calling, far far away...."

Now look what you've done, Neil!

Doug.

[Red Dwarfer]

Good observation and report - M31 is great this time of year as it is so high - I looked at it with M32 and M110 in the same FOV a couple of nights ago ?