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All the material on this website is copyrighted to J-P Metsavainio, if not otherwise stated. Any content on this website may not be reproduced without the author’s permission.

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Siemis 147, the scale in a sky



"How much your telescope magnified?"


People generally seems to have a false idea, that high magnification is needed to capture deep space images.
In fact, many times it's quite contrary, targets are so large, that I have difficulties to fit them in my instruments field of view. Sample image here, Simeis 147, is shot with 200mm camera optics and it barely fits in image area.
Much more important, than magnification, is the light gathering power = aperture.
High magnification is needed for planetary imaging and some small angular size objects, like planetary nebulae and small galaxies.

I have placed a white circle in image series below, to show the angular size of the full Moon in the sky.
Moon has an apparent diameter ~30 arc minutes, that's equal to 0,5 degrees. 

This HST-palette zoom in series has a "Moon circle" as a scale, to demonstrate  the angular scale in a sky.

At first panoramic image at the Left three main objects are seen. At bottom lays IC 405 and IC 410, at top Siemis 147 (Sharpless 240, Sh2-240)

Original images used for the zoom in series, with technical data

Simeis 147:

IC 405 & 410:



A large collection of my scale studies can be found here:






Friday, February 24, 2012

Astro Anarchy gets published, again...




SPACE PICTURE OF THE WEEK, second in row...

National Geographic published my picture of Simeis 147, the "Expansive Nebula", as one of the Space pictures of the Week, Today 24.02. Actually this is a second one in two weeks, I'm kind of shocked... 
Here is the link to a National Georaphic news:

Simeis 147, Sharpless 240 (Sh2-240)
In constellation Taurus

Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Original blog post for this image, with technical details, can be seen here:


A closeup











Saturday, February 18, 2012

Astro Anarchy gets published




SPACE PICTURE OF THE WEEK

National Geographic published my picture of Ced 214, the "Cosmic Curiosity", as one of the Space pictures of the Week, yesterday 17.02.

Here is the link to a National Georaphic news:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/02/pictures/120217-best-space-pictures-183-sun-saturn-moons-science/#/space183-question-mark-nebula_48869_600x450.jpg


Original blog post for this image, with technical details, can be seen here:









Friday, February 17, 2012

The California Nebula, NGC 1499, with some new data




I shot about 5h new H-a data for the NGC 1499 in this Autumn, 2011, with Canon EF 200mm f1.8, full open, and a QHY9 cooled astronomical camera. All the exposures, I have taken for this object bettween years 2008-2011, are now used. Total exposure time is over 26h together for all three channels, Ionized Sulfur, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Two camera lenses was used to capture the data, a Tokina AT 300mm f2.8 and a Canon EF 200mm f1.8, both was used at full aperture. An extra detail, at bright central area, is shot with a longer focal length instrument, Meade LX200 GPS 12" at f5. Exposure time for central detail was about 10h, at top of the total 26h exposure time.


NGC 1499, in Perseus
Ra 04h 03m 18s Dec +36° 25′ 18″

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.

The California Nebula is an emission area located in constellation Perseus. It appears to resemble outlines of State of California on long exposure photographs, like this one. It has a very low surface brightness and it's very difficult to observe visually. Distance from my home town Oulu, Finland, is about 1000 light years.
this image spans about five degrees. The Wikipedia article states, that the angular size is about 2,5 degrees (Five full Moons side by side) but as can be seen in this image, the actual size, with a dim outer parts, is much large.



HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope) from the emission of ionized elements, 
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.



A study about the apparent scale in a sky

This is a large object, note, the size of the Moon is marked, as a scale, in all of the images above.

3D-studies

Experimental 3D-studies of NGC1499 can be found in my portfolio, in different formats.
Please, have a look here:







A panorama mosaic, from IC 1396 to Sh2-129, finalized





A two frame mosaic, from IC 1396 to the Sh2-129 
In constellation Cepheus


Image is in HST-palette from an emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Note. The dark vertical patch, at middle of the image, is not a seam but a dark nebula. Seam between image halves is located right from the dark nebula and can not be seen.

EDIT.
Image is updated 21.02., I found more material for outer parts. Now the composition is more "spacey". 

Last Autumn I shot six hours for new H-alpha light for both objects, IC 1396 & Sharpless 129. 
I combined this new data, shot for the mosaic, to all my older material  from years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The final composition has a total exposure time of about 40h for all channels.
Data is shot with various optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 and LX200 GPS 12" f5. QHY9 and QHY8 cameras are used with a Baader narrowband filter set, Ha, O-III and S-II.
Image spans about ten degrees horizontally. (Twenty full Moons side by side)

I was about to made more dynamic composition out of this. The weather up here didn't support the shooting of the required four mosaic frames. Now the composition is more "informative", than beautiful...


Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.


Ps.

A study about the scale in a sky

Note. Size of the full Moon is marked as a scale.
(Moon has an apparent diameter of 30', that's 0,5 degrees.)


Sunday, February 12, 2012

AstroAnarchy gets published




[nasa-large.jpg]

At Fridays APOD, Feb. 10. 2012, NASA writers used my experimental 3D-stereo pair of NGC 6752 as a reference.

Link to this APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120210.html
My stereo pair from the same object is as a text link , "stars in a sphere", in an APOD above.





Saturday, February 11, 2012

Ced 214 as a 3D stereo pair



Ones again, I have done my 3D-experiments with astronomical images.
Viewing instructions can be seen here:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/search/label/Stereo%20image%20viewing%20instructions



Parallel vision format


Cross vision format




Other 3D-formats:

Original 2D:








NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.

CED 214 as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D





3D-NOTE!
You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see images as 3D.If you have a Red and Blue filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.




An experimental 3D-study in anaglyph format



Other 3D-formats:

Original 2D:








NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Siemis 147, new data added




I did reprocess this SNR, since I have now new data to add,
Emission of  an Oxygen III 5h, and emission of Hydrogen II 5h
Total exposure time is now 26h. with fast, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, camera optics.


Simeis 147, Sh2-240
In constellation Taurus

Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Note. New data for O-III has added much more blue color.
Older version can be seen in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/simeis-147-supernova-remnant.html

I shot H-alpha filtered lights for this image at many nights, after I shot lights for my Cygnus mosaic project.
After a midnight, Cygnus and its targets are too low in the horizon so I used rest of the night for this supernova remnant. Total exposure time for H-alpha is now ~18h +5h of an additional O-III light.

Simeis 147 (sharpless 240), is a very faint and very large supernova remnant in constellation Taurus at distance of ~3000 light years. It's constantly expanding at speed of 1000 km/second but due the size of it, we can't see any movement in it. This SN spans over 160 light years and the apparent scale in the sky is about three degrees (Moon has an apparent size of 30" = 0,5 degrees).  Explosion took place approximately 30.000 years ago  and left behind a  pulsar (Neutron star). The pulsar has recently identified.

How long it'll takes to this supernova remnant to expand 1% large when the diameter is 160 light years and it expands at speed of 1000km/second.
Answer is ~480 years.
 (1% of diameter 160/100= 16, as kilometers ~151.372.800.000.00, = Y, km,
1000km/second is ~315.360.000.00, = Z, kilometers/year.
So, X x Z = Y and  X=Z/Y,    X = 480 with given values)

This is a difficult target to image and image above is my second try to capture it. An older version can be seen here. This older image was my second APOD from NASA.


EDIT.

This image get selected as a Space Picture of the Week by the National Geographic magazine. 
You can see the story HERE




Closeups







Image in visual spectrum

Image in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements, 
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
This palette is very close to a visual spectrum.


An animated image, with and without stars


This is an experimental image, the structure of filaments stands out nicely without stars.



Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 33 % weight
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
H-alpha 34x900s, Binned 1x1 = 8,5h
H-alpha 24x1800s, Binned 1x1 = 12h
O-III 60 x 300s, Binned 3x3 = 5h
S-II 6 x 600, Binned 3x3 = 1h

Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha alone is ~20,5h
Total exposure time is 26,5h

Part of the O-III and S-II channel are from an older image, it can be seen here

Monday, February 6, 2012

Sharpless 145, a dim and large nebula in Cepheus




Sh2-145, a large Nebula in constellation Cepheus
RA 22h 28m 44s  DE +64 08' 51" 




A bicolor composition from H-a and O-III

At night of 03.Feb, I was looking some targets in Cepheus. This area took my attention and I gave it whole night. I haven't been able to find any name for it from my sources. I's large, image spans 5,5 degrees horizontally, and dim. I shot it, with Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and QHY9 astronomical camera, five hours for H-a and two hours for O-III (binned down 3x3), camera was full open at f1.8. 
The "bright", mag 6,29, star, at Left middle, is known as HR 8568, location is RA 22h 28m 44s DE +64 08' 51" 
UPDATE
Thanks to "Never", in a Finnish astronomical forum "Avaruus",  all the objects are now identified!
The bright patch at top is Sh2-150. Formation at the middle is Sh2-145 and a bright spot, at lower Right, is Sh2-140. Star cluster Pismis-Monreo 1 locates inside of Sh2-140.


Orientation map




H-alpha channel



A bicolor closeup





Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 15x1200s 
O-III, binned down 3x3 2h. total exposure time 7 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.




Sunday, February 5, 2012

Sharpless 205, Sh2-205




Sh2-205
At border of  Perseus and Camelopardalis

Image in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen. 
Click for a large image!

This Sharpless object is very dim and difficult to shoot (as they usually are). The bright, peanut shape, area at middle is known as Sh2-205, bright nebula, at top left, is NGC 1491. Image spans about 5,5 degrees horizontally, that's 11 full Moons side by side. There are very few images around out of this object. Total exposure time, with a fast 200mm f1.8 optics, is 12h from three nights between 28.01 - 02.02. 2012.


A closeup


Image in visual spectrum

Narrow band channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and 
B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.



Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 12x1800s + 15x1200s = 11h
O-III, binned down 3x3 1h. total exposure time12 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.