Description
IC 5070, The Pelican Nebula, is one of my favourite objects although it is often overshadowed by its brighter neighbour, NGC 7000, The North America Nebula. The skies didn't play ball with this one so it took several evenings over a protracted period of time to capture any meaningful data during July to October 2016. The finished image is bi-colour comprising 20 x 600 second subframes using a 7nm Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) filter and a mix of 37 x 900 and 1200 second subframes using an 8.5nm Doubly Ionised Oxygen (OIII).
What I particularly wanted to accentuate in this image was the dust. I have always loved the dust apparently 'falling' from the area where M42 and M43 'touch' and was keen to get a similar effect here with this object. Working with just bi-colour data introduced some challenges but in the end, I did get an image that reflected what I was looking for. As well as the gas and dust, there was another feature that I hoped to probe and that was the Herbig-Haro jets (designated HH-555) emanating from the top of the dust and gas pillar on the 'neck' region of the nebula. These jets indicate the presence of an unseen proto-star and they are indeed visible in this image.
Image Details
Location: The Chanctonbury Observatory, Southern England
Mount: Mesu 200
Telescope: William optics FLT98
Reducer: William Optics FR IV
Camera: QSI 683 WSG-8
Guiding: SX LodeStar
Filters: Baader 7nm Ha and 8.5mm OIII
Subframes: 20 x 600 sec Ha, 37 x mix of 900 and 1200 sec OIII
Control: CCD Commander
Capture: MaxIm DL
Post-Processing: MaxIm DL and PS3
Steve Richards
The Chanctonbury Observatory
http://www.nightskyimages.co.uk