The Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is a dark, dense dust cloud found within a much larger cloud (IC 1396) in the Cepheus Constellation about 2400 light years away. The bright edge of the “trunk” is from the ionization of hydrogen by the radiation coming from the gigantic double star system that can be seen above it. The yellowish central hole in the curled portion of the “trunk” is caused by solar winds of multiple newer and smaller stars within, blowing the dust outward. If you turn up your imagination, you can almost visualize the trunk being curled around a peanut. The interaction between the “winds” of the double star and the smaller central stars creates the dense nature of the cloud and is forming a stellar nursery with several protostars beginning to develop. This region is extremely bright and the large overall cloud that the Elephant Trunk Nebula resides within is one of the few that are visible with the naked eye (averted vision and very dark skies).
This image was captured in Sequim on the evening of July 15 of this year.
