This is a widefield view of IC 1396, or the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, in the constellation Cepheus.

The Elephant’s Trunk is coming down from the top center of the image and is usually presented on its own. This view shows the Elephant’s Trunk in the context of the larger nebula that surrounds it.

The nebula is about 2,400 light years away from us and it’s big – the whole nebula spans about 6.2 light years across while the Elephant’s Trunk itself is about 0.8 light years long.

This image was taken in narrowband and presented here using the Hubble Palette (SHO). This image was taken using Telescope Live.

A larger version with plate solution is available on AstroBin: https://astrob.in/paxcag/0/