This image shows a region of the "neck" of The Pelican Nebula, IC 5067 in Cygnus. The image shows an elephant trunk carved by stellar winds of a nearby bright star. Compression of the elephant trunk by the stellar winds has also triggered formation of a low mass star within the tip of the trunk. The protostar is still in the process of forming within a spinning accretion disk.Dynamic forces withing the spinning disk cause material to flow out from opposite sides of the center of the disk in directions perpendicular to its plane. The material is highly collimated into jets. These jets can be seen as delicate tendrils projecting from the tip of the elephant trunk. The jets are bowed back along the axis of the trunk by the same stellar wind that carved the trunk. This object is known as Herbig Haro 555. Other bipolar outflow Herbig Haro (HH) objects, such as HH 563, 564, and 565 are visible along the top of the image.

Telescope: Celestron Compustar C14.

Exposures: Ha:R:G:B=220:80:90:90:90. 

This image was published in the August, 2016 issue of Astronomy Magazine.