The Pelican Nebula is a classic example of radiation-driven star formation. Energetic stars are ionising surrounding gas (this is when electrons are stripped away from atoms), creating pressure waves that compress the gas and then trigger new stars to form in the denser areas. The main stars powering these changes are out of shot, but the boundary between cold gas and energised, hot gas is visible. It’s called an Ionisation Front.

Considering that this Ionisation Front is where material is being “shaken up”, it’s no surprise that it’s home to some interesting features. I think the best of these are Herbig-Haro objects, which are when jets blasted out from newborn stars collide with surrounding gas at hundreds of kilometres per second, causing shockwaves that glow brightly. These generally only last for a few tens of thousands of years, which is the blink of an eye astronomically speaking!

There are quite a few Herbig-Haro objects visible in my image, and below I’ve labelled the clearest three. I think it’s quite incredible that these are visible using amateur equipment, and from a city no less!

During processing, I mapped different elements to specific colours. OIII is blue, Hα is red, and SII is orange (mostly in similar locations to the Hα, albeit in different concentrations).