Elephant, Heart, and Comet

Date:	September 4, 2025 at 12:21:17 MDT
Weather:	85°F Mostly Clear
Location:	Louisville, Colorado, United States

Last night, I imaged the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, IC 1396A. It’s going to take several nights for this to look good, probably. Here is the first night: 214 subs, 45 seconds, 60 gain, duo filter, from Monsters’ Clubhouse; processed in StellarStudio “auto” and Apple Photos “auto”.

Next, I took 241 more subs of the Heart Nebula, and MegaStacked them with three previous nights. Here is 851 subs, 45 seconds, 60 gain, duo filter, from Monsters’ Clubhouse; processed StellarStudio “auto” and Apple Photos “auto”:

Finally, I heard about a new comet that might become naked-eye visible later this year. It’s C/2025 A6, written about in Sky and Telescope.

It’s not in the Dwarf’s database yet, so I pointed at RA 8h 6m 31.5s; Dec +32° 20’ 49.5". I wasn’t sure if I’d hit the side of the house, but ended up lucky. This is 41 subs, 45 seconds, 60 gain, astro filter; StellarStudio “auto” and Apple Photos “auto”.

I bet it’s the fuzzy blue dot about half way up vertically, maybe 2/3 across horizontally. Here it is “zoomed” (cropped).