Explanation:
Stunning
emission
nebula
IC 1396 mixes
glowing cosmic gas and dark dust clouds in the high and far off constellation
of Cepheus.
As pictured here, the 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.
The gorgeous color view is a composition of
digitized
black and white photographic plates recorded
through red and blue astronomical filters.
The plates were taken using the
Samuel
Oschin Telescope,
a wide-field survey instrument at
Palomar Observatory,
between 1989 and 1993.
