Elephant’s Trunk Nebula IC 1396 Hubble Palette by Terry Hancock www.downunderobservatory.com on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The Elephant’s Trunk nebula is a region of ionized gasses located in the constellation Cepheus at a distance of 2,400 light-years from Earth. Shown here is the “tip” of a large structure that resembles an elephant’s trunk. Of interest in this area is the population of very young newborn stars, whose intense stellar winds are excavating the interior of the nebula. Dark wisps of dust hide the coccoon of forming stars, called “globules”, which will be blown away when the star ignites.

This is a Hubble Palette (HST) version of the Elephant Trunk Nebula with SII filter assigned to Red, H-Alpha filter assigned to Green and OIII filter assigned to the blue channel.

Total Exposure 10.5 hours