Night Thirtysix - Elephant's Trunk Nebula

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth. The nebula is a dark, dense globule that gets its name from its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive multiple star (HD 206267) that is just to the east of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula . The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays. (The Index Catalogue (IC) —also known as the Index Catalogue of Nebulae, the Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, is a catalogue of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters that serves as a supplement to the New General Catalogue. It was first published in 1895, and has been expanded to list more than 5,000 objects, known as the IC objects.) The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. IC 1396 is actually a much bigger area of ionized gas, containing the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula within it. A very bright, massive star (HD 206267), located close to the east of IC 1396A, is illuminating and ionizing the surface of the dense cloud, which is seen as the bright rim. In the photo below, you’ll see IC 1396 in its entirety, with the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula to the center-right.

This is an enlarged view of the Trunk.