Elephant's trunk nebula in IC1396

[alexd]

The beautiful Elephant's trunk nebula in the ionised gas region IC1396. I captured this image over three nights in early November 2022 whilst dodging the usual clouds and strong winds in the north of Scotland. This is the first nebula I have shot with my new Esprit 100ED which I think pairs nicely with the ASI294MC Pro. I remember seeing a photo of the Elephant's trunk nebula in a book on astronomy I got one Christmas when I was a boy (along with the pillars of creation) and it blows my mind that quite a few years later I can image the same target from my garden 😀

142 x 300" light frames with the Antlia ALP-T filter (11h 50' total integration time).

Processed using Pixinsight and only a little way up that particularly steep learning curve!

[tooth_dr]

Very dramatic and beautiful colour scheme.  Great job 

[alexd]

19 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Very dramatic and beautiful colour scheme.  Great job 

Thanks for the nice comment tooth_dr, much appreciated. This is my first public posting of an image I have taken so was a little apprehensive (I'm pretty new to this still 😀). I wasn't sure about the colour scheme to be honest and was originally planning on a lighter tone.  I'm looking forward to improving my pixinsight skills as I still feel I haven't gotten the best out of this image. I'm also looking forward to receiving some critical feedback on how I can improve my capture and processing.

Cheers

Alex

 

[Sleepy Kiki]

This is impressive for your first post, your new scope is working very well!

[alexd]

19 minutes ago, Sleepy Kiki said:

This is impressive for your first post, your new scope is working very well!

Thanks sleepy Kiki. Yes, I'm very pleased with the Esprit, pretty good star shapes in the corners and minimal chromatic aberration (I think that's the right term!). Not too much fettling with finding backspace etc either. Just wish the manual rotator was a little more functional, but that's a minor gripe!