Elephant's Trunk Nebula

[crimbfighter]

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula! Located near the constellation Cepheus, this is a view of only a part of the entire Nebula, featuring the iconic gaseous structure that gives the nebula its name. The nebula is located 2400 light years from Earth. Imaged from my Bortle 5/6 back yard in south central Wisconsin on 6/20. The image is shown in the Hubble palette, with the golden tones representing hydrogen gas and the blue tones representing oxygen.

-Celestron AVX mount
-Astro-Tech AT130EDT 130mm f/7 telescope with a 0.8x reducer, making it a 728mm f/5.6 scope.
-ZWO ASI2600MC Pro cooled camera
-ZWO EAF focuser
-Optolong L-Extreme dual narrowband filter
-Pegasus Astro Mini Powerbox
-Orion 60mm guide scope
-Orion Starshoot autoguider
-Controlled with a MeLE Quieter3Q mini PC running Windows

Software
-Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition
-PixInsight and Photoshop for image processing

-50 x 180sec subexposures
-calibrated with 15 each darks, flats, and dark flats
-Total integration time of 2.5hrs

The imaging rig

 

[wobe]

Not too far off Hubbles ‘Pillars of Creation’, except this is from a back garden

Impressive as always and many thanks for providing so much information on how it was achieved.

 

[terri]

Dang, that's a beautiful sight! What a shot. You blow my mind every time with these.

Upon looking closely, I am seeing more of the back of a woman's figure than an elephant trunk - but, whatever. It still looks amazing.

 

[smoke665]

This type of photography always amazes me. I have a friend who's big into it. He built his own backyard observatory with a 6ft thick concrete base for equipment mounting and a sliding roof.

 

[jeffashman]

Absolutely incredible shot! Well done!

 

[crimbfighter]

Not too far off Hubbles ‘Pillars of Creation’, except this is from a back garden

Impressive as always and many thanks for providing so much information on how it was achieved.

Thank you!

This type of photography always amazes me. I have a friend who's big into it. He built his own backyard observatory with a 6ft thick concrete base for equipment mounting and a sliding roof.

That's my ultimate dream, but I will likely have to wait until we build our retirement home with some property before I can make it happen...

 

[crimbfighter]

Dang, that's a beautiful sight! What a shot. You blow my mind every time with these.

Upon looking closely, I am seeing more of the back of a woman's figure than an elephant trunk - but, whatever. It still looks amazing.

OMG, now I can't unsee that!

Absolutely incredible shot! Well done!

Thanks!

 

[TATTRAT]

Fantastic stuff!

 

[slat]

Awesome shot.