Credits: Keith Turnecliff

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years, by the standards of stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity.

Facts about IC1396 by Keith Turnecliff

IC1396 is a large and comparatively faint emission nebula and star forming region over 100 light-years across.
IC1396 is circumpolar so is viewable all year round to northern latitude observers.

This star chart represents a view from Long Itchington for early October at 10pm.
Credits: Image courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus 8, researched and implemented by Keith Turnecliff.