APOD - The Pelican Nebula Imaged On ATEO-1

Insight Observatory is very proud and honored to announce its very first Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)! APOD is a well-known world wide web publication affiliated with NASA of a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe each day, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

The image that was selected for today's APOD is The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070 and IC 5067). The final image processed was produced from an image set created between May and September of 2020 for Starbase, Insight Observatory's image set repository. The exposure time is close to 15 hours imaged with H-Alpha, Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue filters on Insight Observatory's 16" f/3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph reflector (ATEO-1) remote telescope hosted at SkyPi Remote Observatory located in New Mexico.

IC 5070 and IC 5067 - The Pelican Nebula imaged on ATEO-1 by Muir Evenden, pre-processed by Michael Petrasko, and post-processed by Utkarsh Mishra with nearly 15 hours of Ha, LRGB image data available for download on Starbase.

The Pelican Nebula is an emission nebula located near the bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. The nebula is named for its resemblance to a pelican and is associated with the neighboring North America Nebula and is one of several notable nebulae found in the area of the Northern Cross. It is an active star-forming region with a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The position and balance of the stars and gas will gradually change to leave the nebula looking completely different millions of years from now.

The Pelican Nebula is listed as IC 5070 and IC 5067 in the Index Catalogue. The nebula itself is cataloged as IC 5070, while IC 5067 is a prominent part of it, found along the curve of the celestial pelican’s head and neck. It is a ridge of emission spanning about 10 light-years, home to many newly formed stars.

The nebula’s appearance is defined by dark dust clouds, which outline the pelican’s long bill and eye, and bright clouds of ionized gas, which form the curved shape of the pelican’s head and neck.

Sources: Wikipedia and The Constellation Guide.

Search for IC 5070 in the "Name" field in Starbase to access the IC 5070-5067 - Ha (2020) and IC 5070-5067 - LRGB (2020) Pelican Nebula image sets.

Access Starbase