You are probably asking me why this is called the Elephant Trunk Nebula. Sometime you just have to follow the science… J

Ok, I did not see at first. So here is what you do. First, pour a glass of your favorite beverage…. Look at the center of the image, the let your eyes move to the right. You will see what looks to be a ‘donut’ in black with a lighter center. That is the end of the trunk. Let your eyes follow down the trunk to the right and the image of the elephant will show up. If you don’t see it, go back to step 1 J

This is an emission nebula (re: ionized gas that emits its own light) in the constellation Cepheus (named after the mythical King Cepheus of Aethiopia, husband of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda – but I know you knew that).

This nebula is approximately 2,400 light years away and fairly large at ~3x2.5 degrees (moon is about ½ degree). At an apparent magnitude of 5.6 it is just barely visible to human eye if in dark sky conditions. It was discovered photographically in August 1893 by the astronomer Edward Barnard. A little more trivia for you, he worked at the University of Chicago and the – now decommissioned – Yerkes observatory just outside Lake Geneva, WI.

People say to me … wow, you must have a powerful telescope! Well, this was taken with my Nikon 300mm photo lens and my astro camera connected to it. It is 4 hours’ worth of data (48 x 5 minute exposures) taken over 2 nights, June 16 & 17.