Elephant Trunk Nebula in IC1396

Constellation: Cepheus        Distance: 2400 lightyears

Elephant Trunc Nebula

Click for full resolution (5574 x 3809)

Image spcefications:
  • Exposure: 11 hours, HaO3LRGB = 300:200:90:25:25:25 minutes
  • Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM, Temp -10 ° C, Baader LRGB filters, Astrodon 5 nm Ha, 3nm O3
  • Instrument: TEC 140, focal distance 980 mm
  • Mount: Paramount MX+
  • Guiding: TS Off Axisguider, Starlight Xpress Lodestar autoguider and PHD
  • Location: Nozières, France
  • Ambient temperature: Between 15 and 19° C
  • Date: 6, 7 and 8 September 2023
  • © Frans Kroon, Arno-MarkBlesgraaf

Image acquisition Sequence Generator Pro:
  • 30 H-alpha of 10 min, binned 1x1
  • 20 O3 of 10 min, binned 1x1
  • 10 Lum of 5 min binned 1x1
  • 5 Red + 5 Green + 5 Blue of 5 min, binned 1x1
  • 25 Flat fields per channel with Flatfield panel
  • 20 Dark frames of 10 min + 20 Dark frames of 5 min + 50 Bias frames

Processed with PixInsight 1.8.9-2:

    Lineair:
  • ImageCalibration and StarAlignment
  • ImageIntegration and ChannelCombination RGB
  • GraXpert on Lum and RGB
  • ImageSolver and SPCC on RGB
  • BlurXTerminator on Ha, O3, Lum and RGB

  • Non Lineair:
  • HistogramTransformation on Ha, O3, Lum and RGB
  • NoiseXTerminator on Ha, O3, Lum and RGB
  • Create StarImage of RGB with StarXTerminator
  • LRGBCombination

  • StarXTerminator on Ha, O3 and LRGB
  • NBRGBCombination on starless Ha, O3 and LRGB
  • PixelMath to put them together: StarlessImage + StarImage
  • In Photoshop: make background sky dark (25:25:25) with Levels