{"id":13774,"date":"2026-03-04T15:19:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/?p=13774"},"modified":"2026-03-04T15:19:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:19:49","slug":"ic1396-en-fevrier-sous-la-lune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/ic1396-en-fevrier-sous-la-lune\/","title":{"rendered":"IC1396 - in February - under the moon..."},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I'd like to introduce you to a rather graphic nebula in summer: IC1396, better known as the Elephant Trompe. My father sees it more as a woman with a vaporous face. But what about you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, this image was taken in rather poor conditions. It's very low on the horizon, and shot in the presence of a very distracting moon. So why did you image it? Firstly, because it gave me pleasure (and that's important in astro photography!). Secondly, I was looking for a target I could follow all night long. And with the galaxy season, such targets don't exist at my narrow-band focal length. So I spent two nights on this object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of processing, I'm very happy because I really took care of my pre-processing. For the first time, I used dark flats, which solved the problem of flats overcorrecting my images. So the sky background is much cleaner, whereas in my other image - the Rosette - I wasn't convinced by the rendering of my FDC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I've also improved the tilt, but that's still something to work on! Maybe I'll fall for Wanderer Astro's Electronic Tilt Adjuster, which lets you automatically manage tilt directly in NINA via a sequence. Very tempting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of processing, I kept it simple this time. RC-Astro in light mode just to slightly improve sharpness without going overboard (I don't like artificially beautiful rendering). Then I used noise reduction a little, but quietly, otherwise it looks pretty fake. A little noise is part of the charm of astro images, I think...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, histogram enhancement with MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch, which does a great job, especially now that you can input the background. I find it handles the image's overall dynamics much better. To be tested on targets that may be more delicate in this respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, LRGBCombination for HOO rendering. Creation of a mask with RangeSelection to highlight the nebula's OIII (via CurvesTransformation with curve \u201cb\u201d). A very discreet OIII, by the way, as I had very little signal. Next, another mask for the Ha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding stars via PixelMath and the little formula I like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~(~$T*~$T_stars)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finished on Photoshop and poof, there it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, I spent maybe 30-45 min on it, and I must admit I really enjoyed it. With the Rosette, I'd gone to a lot of trouble to get the extensions out (which I also enjoyed), but this time I wanted to keep it simple \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much for the gear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SQA85, SkyEye62AM (IMX455 mono), Avalon M-Uno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Processing : Pix and Photoshop<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acquisition : NINA en auto<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exposure: 11h in Ha, 6h in OIII (really not enough, but okay).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you like the image! I've also attached a few crops. The 63 MP definition allows for nice zooms, and the full frame is very pleasant to browse through, if ever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a nice day<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full on astrobin: https:\/\/app.astrobin.com\/u\/Alien?i=ckk0z5#fullscreen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Small crop for details: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A cosmic frog? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bonjour \u00e0 tous, Je vous pr\u00e9sente une n\u00e9buleuse plut\u00f4t imag\u00e9e en \u00e9t\u00e9 : IC1396, plus connue sous le nom de la Trompe de l\u2019\u00c9l\u00e9phant. Mon p\u00e8re y voit plut\u00f4t une femme de face vaporeuse. Et vous ? En tout cas, cette image a \u00e9t\u00e9 prise dans des conditions assez mauvaises. Elle est tr\u00e8s basse sur […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[862],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astrophoto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13779,"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774\/revisions\/13779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deep-space-astronomy.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}