This is the Pelican Nebula. It is part of the North American Nebula complex – NCG 7000 whose image I posted a couple of days ago. The Pelican is immediately adjacent to the the North American Nebula (NAN) on what would appear to be the NAN’s “east coast.” The two clouds of excited hydrogen are separated by a dark dust lane which can be seen on the righthand side of my NGC 7000 image.
This image is the composite of 30, 6-minute images taken last night with the 130mm F/4.5 astrograph fitted with a narrow, quad-band filter. These objects have large apparent sizes – several lunar diameters, and have too low a surface luminosity to be seen with the unaided eye. Binoculars are ideal for viewing such objects – just don’t expect to see colors.
