This area is an extremely active star-forming region, portion of the Pelican Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus
This shows an area of dense hydrogen gas and dust being eroded by the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot stars. It is classically known as an ionization front.
These smoke-sized dust grains formed in the cool atmospheres of young stars and were dispersed by stellar winds and explosions.
Impressive Herbig-Haro jets are seen emitted by a star on the up right that is helping to destroy the light year-long dust pillar that contains it.
The Pelican Nebula (IC 5067 and IC 5070) is about 2,000 light-years away and can be found with a small telescope to the northeast of the bright star Deneb.
This image is 19.5 hours of exposure using a GSO 8″ RC telescope and a ASI 1600 ccd camera with Astronomik narrowband filters.