Pelican Nebula Astrophotography (IC5070 and IC5067)

“A wonderful bird is the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week!
But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?”

— Dixon Lanier Merritt

This is one of my favorite deep-sky objects because it actually looks like its name. The Pelican Nebula truly resembles the outline of a real pelican — especially in hydrogen-alpha rich astrophotos.

This image was taken without a telescope using:
Canon 60Da • EF200mm f/2.8L II USM • f/4 • ISO 6400
iOptron SkyTracker • DeepSkyStacker • 144 frames × 20 sec

The Canon 60Da has enhanced sensitivity to H-alpha, which is perfect for capturing emission nebulae like this one.

Pelican Nebula Astrophotography IC5070 and IC5067

Yes — it really does look like a pelican! Compare it with the real bird below:

Pelican

Below is a smaller set of exposures — 29 frames × 20 sec — using the same Canon 60Da and 200mm lens:

Pelican Nebula Canon60Da iOptron SkyTracker EF200mm f2.8 L II USM_Astrophotography

The Pelican Nebula is part of a large star-forming region in the constellation Cygnus, located next to the famous North America Nebula. You can see both together — along with the bright star Deneb — in the wide-field image below:

Northern America nebula and Pelican Nebula and Deneb Star

Finally, here is a collage showing:

• Milky Way wide-field pointing to the nebula’s location,
• my detailed Pelican Nebula image,
• and a daytime photo of a real pelican (taken in Puerto Rico).

This makes it much easier for beginners to understand where the nebula is in the sky, how it looks up close, and why astronomers gave it this name.

Pelican Nebula, Sky Location Milky Way and real Pelican Collage

The Pelican Nebula is a fantastic target for DSLR astrophotography and a great example of how astronomy and imagination often meet. It also shows one of the biggest advantages of the Canon 60Da: excellent H-alpha sensitivity for emission nebulae.

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