| Pelican Nebula |
The long beak of the Pelican
Nebula looks more like the head
of a prehistoric Pterydactyl than
the head of a bird. The eye is
ghostly dark, but the nearby
bright star hints of a displaced
eyeball. The Pelican Nebula is
part of a huge cloud of hydrogen
gas, termed an H-II region by
astronomers, illuminated by a
nearby star. Like other H-II
regions, the hydrogen gas is
excited by the stellar energy, and
then emits its own light at the
characteristic red wavelength of
hydrogen.
Located at a distance of 1500
light-years in the direction of the
constellation Cygnus the Swan,
the Pelican Nebula is separated
from the adjacent larger North
American Nebula by a broad band
of light-absorbing dark clouds.
This image combined 84
Luminance images with a red
filter, with 20 red, 20 green, and
28 blue one-minute images, for a
total imaging time of 2 hours 32
minutes. An ST10XME camera
was used through a 4 inch
refractor.
Nebula looks more like the head
of a prehistoric Pterydactyl than
the head of a bird. The eye is
ghostly dark, but the nearby
bright star hints of a displaced
eyeball. The Pelican Nebula is
part of a huge cloud of hydrogen
gas, termed an H-II region by
astronomers, illuminated by a
nearby star. Like other H-II
regions, the hydrogen gas is
excited by the stellar energy, and
then emits its own light at the
characteristic red wavelength of
hydrogen.
Located at a distance of 1500
light-years in the direction of the
constellation Cygnus the Swan,
the Pelican Nebula is separated
from the adjacent larger North
American Nebula by a broad band
of light-absorbing dark clouds.
This image combined 84
Luminance images with a red
filter, with 20 red, 20 green, and
28 blue one-minute images, for a
total imaging time of 2 hours 32
minutes. An ST10XME camera
was used through a 4 inch
refractor.
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