Terry Hancock captured a detailed image of IC 1396, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, about 2,400 light‑years away in the constellation Cepheus. The nebula includes a twisting, ~20‑light‑year column of dust and gas and dark filaments silhouetted against glowing ionized gas. Hancock combined nearly 114 hours of exposures from a 180 mm Newtonian and a bespoke Whitewater camera (dataset dated Sept. 22, 2021), using filters and processing in PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop. The full complex spans just over 5° of sky but appears only as a faint haze to the unaided eye under perfect dark skies.
Stunning 114‑Hour Image Reveals the Elephant's Trunk Nebula in Extraordinary Detail
Terry Hancock captured a detailed image of IC 1396, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, about 2,400 light‑years away in the constellation Cepheus. The nebula includes a twisting, ~20‑light‑year column of dust and gas and dark filaments silhouetted against glowing ionized gas. Hancock combined nearly 114 hours of exposures from a 180 mm Newtonian and a bespoke Whitewater camera (dataset dated Sept. 22, 2021), using filters and processing in PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop. The full complex spans just over 5° of sky but appears only as a faint haze to the unaided eye under perfect dark skies.
03:31 AM, 11/10/2025Science
Astrophotographer Captures IC 1396 — the Elephant's Trunk Nebula — in Rich Detail
Astrophotographer Terry Hancock has produced a striking, high‑detail image of the star‑forming region IC 1396, commonly known as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. The complex lies roughly 2,400 light‑years away in the constellation Cepheus and contains both bright ionized gas and dark dust pillars where new stars are forming.
IC 1396 is an emission nebula: ultraviolet radiation from young, hot stars ionizes the surrounding gas, causing it to glow. Set against that glowing backdrop are dense, dark filaments of dust that silhouette as pronounced features and harbor the raw material for future stellar generations.
"The image highlights various celestial elements, including a notable emission nebula, by contrast against the bluish cavity that fills the center of IC 1396," Hancock told Space.com.
The nebula's evocative nickname comes from a twisting column of interstellar gas and dust near the center of the field — a structure about 20 light‑years long that resembles an elephant's trunk. The entire IC 1396 complex spans just over 5° of sky, roughly the width of ten full moons placed side by side; under truly dark skies it would appear to the unaided eye only as a faint, hazy glow.
Hancock recorded the ancient light from this region across nearly 114 hours of total exposure time using a 180 mm Newtonian reflector paired with a custom astronomy camera built by Whitewater, Colorado. The dataset is dated Sept. 22, 2021. Specialized narrowband and broadband filters were used to isolate selected wavelengths; frames were then calibrated, combined, and processed in PixInsight and refined in Adobe Photoshop to reveal the nebula's structure and subtle color palette.
The resulting photograph emphasizes both the luminous ionized gas and the dark, dust‑filled pillars within IC 1396, delivering a detailed portrait of an active stellar nursery and illustrating how long exposures and careful processing can bring out faint, intricate features in deep‑sky targets.
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