Pelican, Pterodactyl, even Elephant’s Head, this nebula is highly evocative and definitely resembles one of the above. It is a massive hydrogen alpha star forming region in the constellation of Cygnus, that is a part of the same dust cloud as The North America Nebula. It is separated from its neighbour by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust.

From our vantage point, the dark dust clouds help define the Pelican’s dark eye and long bill, while a bright front of ionized gas suggests the curved shape of the head and neck. This image is the result of using just the Hα filter, showing the structure of the nebula in greater detail. It is not just a Pelican that hides in these dust clouds, several alternatives have been suggested during the exhibitions; The Reluctant Bride runs off to the right with her bridal train flowing out behind her or tilt your head to the left and you can see a smiling hare! Millions of years from now this nebula might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will leave something that appears completely different.

The Pelican is much studied because it has a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming cold gas to hot and causing an ionization front gradually to advance outward. Particularly dense filaments of cold gas still remain, and among these are found two jets emitted from the Herbig-Haro object 555. If you look to the right of the Pelican’s eye you can make out a small dark horizontal line highlighted by the brighter clouds behind - that is the area of the Herbig-Haro object. The two small brighter lines above and below the left tip of the dark area are the two jets.