Pelican Nebula (IC 5070 & IC 5067)
Coordinates, Gaia DR3 distance (795 pc), Herbig-Haro 555 bipolar jet pillar, and narrowband observing guide for the Pelican Nebula in Cygnus.
Provenance-Backed Scientific Measurements
Every measurement below preserves its unit, uncertainty interval, observational method, reference epoch, quality status, and primary catalog source. See Uncertainty & Provenance for how competing measurements are handled.
| Parameter | Value | Uncertainty | Method & Epoch | Quality Status | Source Archive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrated visual magnitude (V) | 8 mag | ± 0.4 mag | Wide-field photographic/CCD emission photometry | high-confidence | Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue (RNGC/IC) |
| Heliocentric distance | 2590 ly | ± 80 ly | Gaia DR3 astrometric parallax of W80/IC 5070 young stars (795 ± 25 pc) (J2016.0) | definitive | ESA Gaia Archive — Data Release 3 |
| Apparent angular dimensions | 60 arcmin | ± 5 arcmin | Optical H-alpha emission lobe (60′ × 50′) | high-confidence | Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue (RNGC/IC) |
J2000 Equatorial Sky Chart & Culmination Altitude
The chart below plots Pelican Nebula (IC 5070 in Cygnus) at RA 20h 50m 48.00s, Dec +44° 21′ 00.0″ within Cygnus, alongside peak meridian transit altitudes for 40°N and 30°S observers. Use the RA/Dec Coordinate Converter to compute exact culmination altitude for your latitude.
Astrophysical Context & Structure
The Pelican Nebula (IC 5070 and IC 5067) is an active 60 × 50 arcminute H II star-forming region located 2,590 light-years (795 ± 25 parsecs) away in Cygnus, sitting immediately west of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) across the dark molecular dust lane Lynds 935. Discovered photographically by Max Wolf and Isaac Roberts in the 1890s and named for its resemblance to a long-billed pelican in profile, the nebula is separated into two Index Catalogue entries: IC 5067 marks the bright northern ridge forming the bird's head and curved neck, while IC 5070 encompasses the broader body and wings.
Like NGC 7000, the Pelican Nebula is bathed in extreme-ultraviolet radiation from the hidden O3.5 binary star J205551.3+435225 inside the W80 complex. As the advancing ionization front eats westward into dense, cold molecular gas, it sculpts dark elephant-trunk dust columns that are rapidly photoevaporating—meaning that over the next few million years the Pelican's silhouette will completely change.
Projecting from the tip of the longest dark dust trunk near the Pelican's 'back' and 'neck' is Herbig-Haro 555 (HH 555), a curved twin bipolar jet of shocked ionized gas blasted outward at >100 km/s by a deeply embedded protostar caught in the final stages of accretion.
Practical Visual Observing Guide
- Located midway between Deneb (α Cygni) and the North America Nebula (NGC 7000), framing two 5th-magnitude stars—56 Cygni and 57 Cygni—near its northern edge.
- Significantly fainter in visual surface brightness than neighboring NGC 7000; dark skies (Bortle 1–3), a wide-field rich-field telescope (80–150 mm at 15×–35×) with a large exit pupil (5–6 mm), and an O-III or UHC filter are essential.
- With an O-III filter, look first for the brighter IC 5067 'back of the neck' ionization ridge just south of 56 and 57 Cygni, and use the sharp dark boundary of LDN 935 on the east to trace the Pelican's long bill.
Catalog Cross-Identifications & Aliases
Common Aliases: IC 5070 · IC 5067 · Pelican Nebula
| Catalog Authority | Identifier |
|---|---|
| IC | IC 5070 |
| SIMBAD | IC 5070 |
| WIKIDATA | Q726800 |
Related Objects, Comparisons & Guides
North America Nebula (NGC 7000 in Cygnus)
Coordinates, Gaia DR3 distance (795 pc), Bajamar Star O3.5 III ionizer, Cygnus Wall, and wide-field observing guide for NGC 7000 in Cygnus.
Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop NGC 6960/6992)
Coordinates, Gaia distance (735 pc), O-III filament structure, and visual filter guide for the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in Cygnus.
Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888 Wolf-Rayet Bubble)
Coordinates, Gaia DR3 distance (1.80 kpc), WR 136 Wolf-Rayet wind collision physics, and O-III filter observing guide for NGC 6888 in Cygnus.
Surface Brightness & Extended Objects Guide
Why surface brightness (mag/arcsec²) governs nebula and galaxy visibility more than integrated magnitude, and how exit pupil controls eyepiece contrast.
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale & Sky Brightness Guide
Reference guide to the 9-class Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, zenith Sky Quality Meter (SQM) readings in mag/arcsec², naked-eye limiting magnitude, and light pollution.
Scientific Sources & Dataset Provenance
- ESA Gaia Archive — Data Release 3 (DR3 (2022-06-13)): Gaia Collaboration, Vallenari, A., et al. 2023, A&A, 674, A1 (Gaia Data Release 3) — European Space Agency / Gaia DPAC
- Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue (RNGC/IC) (2024/2026 edition): Steinicke, W. 2010, Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters (Cambridge Univ. Press); Verga, M. OpenNGC (CC-BY-SA 4.0 / data tables) — Wolfgang Steinicke / OpenNGC
- SIMBAD Astronomical Database (CDS) (2026-10 release): Wenger, M., et al. 2000, A&AS, 143, 9 (The SIMBAD astronomical database) — Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg