IC1396A The Elephant's Trunk Nebula.

 

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula in the Constellation Cepheus. Seestar S30 in EQ mode with Light Pollution Filter. 60x60 sec lights stacked and cropped post capture. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" IC 1396A is one of the most photographed objects in the Northern Hemisphere sky. Strangely the JPO team had never imaged it before. So, with a one hour window of clear  sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory, Kurt decided to point the Seestar S30 in its direction. The Seestar does well with large nebulae and for only one hour of exposures we thought this image, although 'crunchy', was not bad for a telescope having only 30mm of aperture.

We selected a colour palette in modified RGB, which follows the HOO narrow band palette in outline.

The above image captures IC 1396A, commonly known as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, a dense globule of interstellar gas and dust embedded within the much larger ionized hydrogen region IC 1396, located in the high-northern constellation Cepheus approximately 2,400 light-years from Earth.

Astronomical Characteristics

• Morphology & Dynamics: The dark, elongated structure—resembling an elephant's trunk—is a dense molecular pillar sculpted by the intense ultraviolet radiation and high-velocity stellar winds emanating from the massive, luminous central O-type star HD 206267 (located just off-frame). The bright rim seen edging the dark structure is an ionization front, where radiation from HD 206267 heats and ionizes the outer compressed gas shell.

• Star Formation Site: The Elephant's Trunk is an active star-forming region (an H II region). The photoevaporative compression caused by nearby hot stars compresses the interior interstellar medium, triggering gravitational collapse and giving birth to young stellar objects (YSOs) and protostars hidden within the opaque dust lane.

• Spectral Emission: Captured using a light-pollution (LP) filter, the false-colour/dual-band palette Highlights the ionized atomic hydrogen (Halpha) emissions in warm amber and orange tones, while contrasting background dust lanes and surrounding ionized gas appear in cooler dark hues.

We will undoubtedly return to this object in the future, as more data will definitely improve image quality" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula an enlarged crop from the above wider field. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

Waning Gibbous Moon

 

Sometimes the Moon looks mysterious. Seestar S30 video clip stacked and processed post capture. Image Credit Pip Stakkert.

"Sometimes the Moon looks mysterious

Sometimes it appears cold and lonely

Sometimes it seems close

Sometimes far away

Sometimes it is a source of light pollution

But always, the Moon is Mozart's Queen of the Night"

Joel Cairo CEO the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The crater Aristarchus in top left, reflective and bright" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

This flyover was produced by the LPI's 2010 Lunar Exploration Summer Intern Program. The team members responsible for this work are Jean-François Blanchette-Guertin, Jessica Flahaut, Christie Jilly, Pryianka Sharma, and Audrey Souchon. Dr. David Kring acted as the interns' supervisor. Support for the program was provided by LPI and the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). USRA.

The Cygnus Loop an overview

 

The Cygnus Loop a collection of composite images captured with the JPO's Seestar S30 in August and September 2026. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" We wanted to put together a panorama of individual images captured with the Seestar S30 to show the full extent of the Cygnus Loop in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. The Loop is quite large, 3 degrees in diameter, which is roughly equivalent to forty-five times the area presented by the Moon.  Unfortunately, the night Kurt chose to capture the data started well but as the night proceeded conditions deteriorated, as the Moon rose and the clouds appeared. Consequently, the above composite image uses the best data we have from two or more autumnal nights". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

"This image presents a composite astronomical collage showcasing key sub-regions of the Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 103), a large supernova remnant located approximately 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The mosaic brings together distinct narrow-band emission structures captured through astronomical imaging, highlighting the expanding shockwaves produced when a massive star exploded thousands of years ago.

Western Veil Nebula (NGC 6960 / The Witch's Broom)

Visible on the right side of the collage, the Western Veil exhibits delicate, filamentary shock fronts predominantly glowing in the light of ionized hydrogen (H alpha) and doubly-ionized oxygen (O III). The bright, central foreground star silhouetted along the filament is 52 Cygni, an unrelated spectroscopic binary that serves as a primary visual landmark for this segment of the remnant. The linear, swept-back tendrils illustrate where the expanding blast wave is encountering interstellar clouds, compressing and heating gas to tens of thousands of Kelvin.

Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992 / NGC 6995)

Positioned on the left side of the collage, this arc represents the eastern boundary of the expanding blast wave. The prominent red hue corresponds to ionized hydrogen gas (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm), outlining dense, curtain-like sheets of gas viewed edge-on. The complex, curved geometry reveals localized variations in the density of the surrounding interstellar medium.

Pickering's Triangle (Fleming's Triangular Whisp / NGC 6979)

Located in the upper section and spanning toward the central background, this fainter, triangular network of delicate filaments represents a central cloud complex of the Cygnus Loop. Unlike the sharp outer arcs, Pickering’s Triangle exhibits an intricate, web-like structural diffuse emission, formed where the blast wave interacts with diffuse interstellar gas within the interior of the remnant shell". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

The Nova in Sagitta - a classical Fe II-type nova.

 

Part of the Constellation 'Sagitta the Arrow' showing the Nova V488. The image is a compilation panorama of two stacks of images captured last night with the Observatory's Seestar S30.

Image and plate solving credit: Astrometry.net 

Google Gemini's go at identifying Nova Sagitta V488 - which Kurt believes to be wrong! As most AI software warns 'AI can make mistakes'🤣 

    

Kurt's best guess at the location of Nova V488 based on the images and charts available on the internet from credible sources 

 

"Last night from the Jodrell Plank Observatory, we managed to capture a few photons from the Cosmos. Kurt and his team were battling against the clouds and a waning gibbous Moon , which in concert did much to make imaging difficult! 

Kurt was very keen to image the current nova in the constellation Sagitta is named V488 Sagittae (also designated as Nova Sagittae 2026 or N Sge 2026).

The Seestar was the obvious choice bearing in mind it's quick set up, reasonable  field of vision and the brightness of the nova at mag 6 to 7. 

It is however very easy to mix up stars in and around the plane of the Milky Way where you are often spoilt for choice. 

We do however believe we have captured an image which shows the nova." - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO the UKs most easterly Astronomical Observatory.

" Out of courtesy, I uploaded Kurt's best guess to Google Gemini and in response and without further comment it corrected it's annotation to agree with his. Either it just wants to please everyone or it has some way to go before 'world domination" 🤣 -Joel

Google Gemini's corrected annotation

Nova in Sagitta August 2026: Scientific Description

By Gary Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

V488 Sagittae (also designated Nova Sagittae 2026 / PNV J19450648+1822422) is undergoing a classic thermonuclear nova explosion.

At the centre of this cataclysmic variable system is a dense white dwarf in a tight binary orbit with a stellar companion star. Over time, the intense gravitational pull of the white dwarf pulls hydrogen-rich gas away from its donor companion, forming an accretion disk around the remnant star before settling directly onto its surface.

As this accreted layer of hydrogen accumulates on the white dwarf's surface, extreme gravitational forces compress and heat the gas. Once the base of this material reaches critical temperature and pressure thresholds (roughly 10 million Kelvin), runaway nuclear fusion is triggered.

This sudden, runaway thermonuclear blast violently ejects the outer envelope of accumulated hydrogen into space at thousands of kilometres per second. The explosion causes the progenitor system—previously an extremely dim magnitude ~21 speck—to violently brighten by hundreds of thousands of times into a bright 6th–7th magnitude optical transient before beginning its slow radiative cooling and decay phase.

Unlike a supernova, the underlying white dwarf survives the blast intact, and after the ejected shell dissipates, the mass-transfer accretion process will eventually begin anew.

Why V488 is Different from a Type 1a Supernova

V488 Sagittae (Classical Nova): This is a superficial, non-destructive surface explosion. It occurs in a close binary system where a white dwarf pulls hydrogen gas from a companion star. Once the gas pressure builds up, a thermonuclear runaway triggers on the surface, causing the system to flare up significantly in brightness before fading. The underlying white dwarf completely survives the event. 
Type Ia Supernova: This is a terminal, internal detonation. It occurs when a carbon-oxygen white dwarf accumulates so much mass that it exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit (roughly 1.44 solar masses), causing the entire star to blow itself apart and leave no remnant behind. 

Pickering's Triangle and The Cygnus Loop.

 

Pickering's Triangle and the Witches Broom Nebula. Seestar S30 EQ mode. Cropped selection from a 60 minute stack of 60 second light frames.

"Part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and the remnants from a supernova.  One of the joys of the Northern Hemisphere's summer and early autumn skies " - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory in Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK.

The Cygnus Loop: Scientific Description

By G.Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

The Western Veil Nebula & Pickering’s Triangle (Cygnus Loop)

This wide-field capture features two prominent components of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant: NGC 6960 (the Western Veil, or Witch’s Broom) and Pickering’s Triangle (Simeis 3-188). Located approximately 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, these intricate filaments trace the expanding shockwave of a core-collapse supernova that shattered a massive star roughly 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.

Arcing across the upper section, the Witch’s Broom forms a sharp, delicate shock front visually anchored by the bright foreground star 52 Cygni (mag 4.2). The ribbon displays strong colour separation created by distinct atomic transitions: rich magenta-red hues from ionized hydrogen (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm) complemented by subtle cyan filaments corresponding to doubly ionized oxygen ([O III] emission at 500.7 nm), where supersonic shocks heat the interstellar medium. Across the lower frame, Pickering's Triangle unfolds into a intricate web of braided gas threads, showcasing diffuse hydrogen emission interlaced with faint ionization boundaries.

Acquisition & Processing Details:

• Telescope/Camera: ZWO Seestar S50 (Equatorial Mode)

• Integration: 60 × 60s exposure lights (1 hour total integration)

• Gradient Correction: GraXpert

• Star Separation: StarNet GUI

• Post-Processing & Composition: Affinity Photo 2

Curiosity said Alice!

 

The Martian Vista captured by the mast-cam of the Curiosity Rover.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

" When you make something well it does last, even in the most extreme of environments. This image taken by the Curiosity Rover on Mars at its highest elevation to date, really underlines the extreme nature of the Martian Environment. 

In a timescale of one million years the Sun will have begun to heat up as part of its ageing process. Life on Earth will eventually become impossible. In the meantime, rather than prioritising humanity's escape to Mars, we might be better to invest resources in protecting our environment and defending the one 'Million Years', which is an enormous amount of time and represents at least 100,000 future generations". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"I was surprised to see our sponsor's image of the Andromeda Galaxy, captured with the Seestar S30, in the September issue of Astronomy Now. Who knew the 'old boy' would get to be astronomically popular?" - Kurt Thrust current Director of Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Sometimes you find an unexpected interloper.

 

" Kurt was getting his head around an update of the Seestar App and as part of the process pointed the S30 at the Elephant's Trunk Nebula IC1396 for a couple of minutes. He then forgot all about it. When I came across the data, I noticed that the 'Elephant' had been photobombed by a meteor, possibly a Perseid straggler" - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO the UK's most easterly Astronomical Observatory.