IC 1396 - Elephants Trunk Nebula

From NASA: Stunning emission nebula IC 1396 mixes glowing cosmic gas and dark dust clouds in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Energized by the bright central star seen here, this star forming region sprawls across hundreds of light-years, spanning over three degrees on the sky while nearly 3,000 light-years from planet Earth. Among the intriguing dark shapes within IC 1396, the winding Elephant's Trunk nebula lies just below center. Stars could still be forming inside the dark shapes by gravitational collapse. But as the denser clouds are eroded away by powerful stellar winds and radiation, any forming stars will ultimately be cutoff from the reservoir of star stuff.

Imagers Notes: This first image was taken in September 2022, while the lower wide shot was from earlier in July 2021, unfortunately it was not my favorite image I’ve ever taken. This one is much better data at over 26 hours. While it looks a little artsy I’m working on finding that balance between natural and visually pleasing as a whole. There will likely be a new version here sometime soon.