The Great Dragon of Pelican Nebula in All Its Glory
Alqueva´s Dark Sky Reserve | By Year: 2023 | Deep Sky Wide Field
The image features a dark region between Pelican Nebula and the Cygnus Wall. This region is very often photographed specially because the well know North America nebula NGC7000 where this region of the sky is embedded, but many few images – I only found half a dozen in Astrobin until today, making some reference – are showing the real portrait of the “hidden” Dragon in all its glory, which I tried to emphasise in my framing and personally would like to named the Great Dragon of Pelican. The dark nebula LDN 935 which represents the figure shape of a Chinese Dragon, is known as the “Gulf of Mexico” – more easy to understand if seeing it in a different angle – is a region where the obscured interstellar dust lanes are absorbing and scattering the light, darkening the region between both nebulas. The greenish right edge reveals the bright interesting area known as the Cygnus Wall, a true stellar nursery of newly formed stars. The wall is eroded and illuminated by bright young stars, partially not visible for being occulted behind the dust they have just created. On the left side of the dust, is shining the Pelican Nebula, a star formation and evolving cloud of gas. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold gas into hot gas, revealing the advancing boundary between both, known as the ionization front, and visible on the image as the bright orange-reddish region, with intricate filaments of cold gas visible along the front. The image captured from Dark Sky® Alqueva observatory, in different wavelengths between Ha, OIII and RGB light, using the Anit-Halo PRO Dual-Band 3nm and a Poseidon-C Pro Camera from Player One Astronomy.
PT: A imagem mostra uma região escura entre a Nebulosa do Pelicano e a Parede do Cisne. Esta região é frequentemente fotografada especialmente por causa da conhecida nebulosa North America NGC7000 onde esta região do céu está embutida, mas muito poucas imagens – só encontrei meia dúzia até hoje no Astrobin com algum tipo de referência – mostram o retrato real do Dragão “oculto” em toda a sua glória, que tentei enfatizar neste meu enquadramento e pessoalmente apelidei de o Grande Dragão do Pelicano. A nebulosa escura LDN 935, que representa a figura do Dragão chinês, é na verdade conhecida como “Golfo do México” – mais fácil de entender se vista de um ângulo diferente – é uma região onde as faixas obscuras de poeira interestelar estão absorvendo e espalhando a luz, escurecendo a região entre as duas nebulosas. A zona esverdeada à direita revela uma área brilhante e interessante conhecida como Parede do Cisne, um verdadeiro berçário de estrelas recém-formadas. A parede está erodida e iluminada por estrelas jovens e brilhantes, parcialmente invisíveis por estarem ocultas atrás da poeira que acabaram de criar. No lado esquerdo da poeira escura do Dragão, brilha a Nebulosa do Pelicano, uma formação estelar e uma nuvem de gás em evolução. A luz de estrelas jovens e energéticas está lentamente transformando o gás frio em gás quente, revelando a fronteira avançada entre ambos, conhecida como frente de ionização, e visível na imagem como a região laranja-avermelhada brilhante no centro inferior esquerdo, com intrincados filamentos de gás frio visíveis ao longo da frente como pequenos pilares. A imagem foi captada a partir do Observatório Oficial do Dark Sky® Alqueva, na Cumeada, Portugal, em diferentes comprimentos de onda entre a luz Ha, OIII e RGB e usando o filtro Anit-Halo PRO Dual-Band 3nm, conjuntamente com a Poseidon-C Pro Camera, da Player One Astronomy.
Above and Below: A starless image to appreciate only the nebulosity, and the annotated version produced with PixInsight script based in several known catalogues to identify the main objects in the image. As well as a starfield presented in landscape version, intended to help conduct the reader attention to the most interesting parts of the image.
PT: Acimea e em baixo: A versão da imagem sem estrelas para apreciar melhor as nebulosas e uma versão legendada com anotação produzida pelo script do PixInsight baseado em vários catálogos reconhecidos, identificando assim os principais objectos visíveis na imagem. Assim como uma versão em formato de paisagem com o objetivo intencional de ajudar a conduzir a atenção do leitor para as partes mais interessantes da imagem.
Technical details | Detalhes Técnicos
Taka FSQ-106ED at F3.6 – EM200 auto-guided in N.I.N.A| Poseidon-C Pro Camera from Player One Astronomy | Sub Exp. 5 min with Anit-Halo PRO Dual-Band Filter 2″ (Ha+OIII) 3nm from Player One Astronomy | Total integration of 10h (8,5 in HaOIII + 1,5h in RGB). Processing on PixInsight 1.8.9-2 and Photoshop CC 2024. Cumeada Observatory from Dark Sky® Alqueva Reserve, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal.
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