Okay, a little click bait – the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula wasn’t at the zenith point of the sky last night, but I finally imaged this emission nebula in a way that makes sense to me!!! I always find it interesting how some nebulae’s names don’t always seem to match up with their appearance. Until last night (this morning), one of those for me was the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula.
If you do a random google search on the “Elephant’s Trunk Nebula,” some variation of this image usually pops up. The nebula is found in the constellation Cepheus and is about 2,400 light years away. Its pinkish appearance classifies it as an emission nebula, meaning it is hot enough to generate its own, faint light. One of the characteristics of emission nebulae is they can be places of star birth.
Now, I don’t know about you, but every time I see this image, I struggled to see an elephant trunk. To my eyes, it almost looked like a desert rock formation or something with a ghostly appearance to it.
However, a change of perspective helped me unlock this image!
My home state of Wisconsin has been experiencing one of the best stretches of clear skies that I can remember. Because of this, my Vespera observation station has been getting a workout! It’s a nice change of pace as a hobby astronomer to need to remind myself, “Yes, the skies are clear right now, but you also need sleep… you have a day job.” Still, the clarity of the skies mixed a favorable Moon phase has been prime for deep space imaging. Vespera has a mosaic function where you can image a large patch of the sky instead of just a single image. Therefore, I decided to image not only the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, but the wide field of nebulosity (gas clouds) around it. And this is what emerged!
Now, when I saw this, I couldn’t unsee it. What do I mean? Do you see the Elephant face? No… Look for its right eye and forehead. I’ve isolated it in the image below. Think of the dark patch to the left as its right eye. Then, follow the trunk down as it “curves” to the right and sweeps up toward the eye. Now the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula makes much more sense to me. To my eyes, it looks like an elephant throwing water on itself.
Can you see it? I don’t know about you, but once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it. I’m sure I could construct a reflection on seeing this as a metaphor for stepping back and taking a larger view of our lives as people of faith. I’ll let you explore that idea on your own in prayer. Today, I simply want to share the joy of finally seeing something I couldn’t see before. It’s like the Scripture passage we read 50 times, but the 51st reading hits as new and fresh.
It was a very good and late night, so I need a nap. Enjoy and I pray that God gives you a moment of joy this Monday!
