Back to Article List Deep-Sky Dreams: Emission nebula IC 1396 With binoculars or a wide-field scope, this emission nebula is a vast playground, filled with many other interesting objects.

Recently, over 100 young stars have been discovered forming in the nebula. To get a better idea of why this is more usually called the Elephant’s Trunk, check out this photo of the whole nebula.

Among them are the red supergiant star Mu Cephei; the double stars Struve 2816 and Struve 2819; the dark nebula van den Bergh 142, known as the Elephant Trunk Nebula; dark nebula Barnard 161 (just ...