Celestial Antiquity
It is with great pleasure that we returned to a well-known object for astronomers and astrophotographers. It is always a challenge to try to do better than last time by optimizing image acquisition and processing.
The images were acquired remotely in Portugal using our Telescope hosted by the ARO group (Alentejo Remote Observatory).
It is therefore the nebula IC1396 and more particularly its center the nebula of ‘the elephant’s trunk’, as it is called.
IC 1396 is actually an emission nebula and a star formation region, located about 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cepheus. This nebula is dotted with clouds of gas and dark, cold dust.
The elephant’s trunk stretches over about 20 light-years and houses at its summit two young stars that have cleared a small cavity.
It is thought that one of these stars could host a planetary system to become.
The cloud also contains several protostars in formation.
The particular shape of the elephant’s trunk nebula results from its interaction with its close environment, heated and blown by the stellar winds.
