Astro Anarchy

What?

2012-01-29T15:31:00.002+02:00

A gray scale image of the Hydrogen alpha emission line. Click for a large image!

For a long time we have had clear weather, freezing too. I have spent couple of night shooting some new material. This cosmic question mark, in constellation Cepheus, contains following objects; At top, Cederblad 214 (Ced 214) surrounded by NGC 7822, a dot like nebula at the bottom is known as Sharpless 170,(Sh2-170). Image spans about three and half degrees vertically.

Total exposure time is about 7h with an ultra fast Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the QHY9 astronomical camera. I'll shoot other channels, emission of Oxygen and Sulfur, later, for a color image.

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, ~4,5 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 13x1200s + 10x900s

Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.

A panorama from Simeis 147 to IC 405 & 410

2012-01-25T23:24:00.000+02:00

Panoramic image from a constellation Taurus

A three panel mosaic in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen. North is Right.

Image above spans about ten degrees, 600', sky horizontally, that's an area of 20 full Moons side by side.

At Left, a supernova remnant Simeis 147 (Sharpless 240). IC 405 and 410 can be seen at Right. I shot three relatively short exposures for the panorama, about an hour each, since I had shot both main objects earlier at Autumn 2011, with much longer integration time. (Technical details can be seen at end of this post.)
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha alone is about 20h.

Panorama as a natural color composition

Narrowband channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. Image is in real orientation in the sky, North is up.

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, ~4,5 arcseconds/pixel

H-a for three panels 3h.

Exposures for the Simeis 147

http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/simeis-147-supernova-remnant.html

H-alpha 34x900s, Binned 1x1

H-alpha 14x1800s, Binned 1x1

Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha is ~13h

O-III & S-II channels are from an older image, it can be seen here

Exposures for IC 405 & 410

http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ic405-410.html

New exposures H-alpha 13x900s,

S-II and O-III information are from an older image

Total exposure time for Hydrogen, ~20h

Large print out of the Cygnus nebulae

2012-01-23T19:37:00.000+02:00

A framed photograph of the Cygnus Nebulae and my beautiful wife, Anna, as a scale.

The size of the picture is 100 x 170cm (39,4 x 67 inch). It has been printed on acid free premium satin photo paper with a HP Z3100, 12 color, photo printer. I'm very happy with the quality of the print. Original file is so large and detailed, that the image is very sharp and all the stars are absolute pinpoints from edge to edge. I have calculated, that I can print out a sharp copy at size of about 3 x 5m, if I want!

I found the frame, seen in the picture, from a local Framing shop, it's an old, late 1800, gilded wooden frame. The print is then made to match to sizes of the frame. The result looks like an old Baroque painting.

Original image, in the picture above, can be found here with technical details:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

Ps.

The frame and framing are bought from Taide ja Kehys Jokela.

The print job is done by the Artwall.

Cygnus zoom in series

2012-01-13T11:16:00.000+02:00

Weather, up here 65N, doesn't give any support so I made an other zoom in series.

This time I'm zooming from 23x14 to 0,5x0,7 degrees of sky at the are of NGC 7000 in Cygnus.

Older series can be seen in my portfolio: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p162076373

I have shot many targets with several focal lengths.

Due that, I will publish some of my material as an image sets, with different field of view and detail levels.

The fractal nature of our universe stands out nicely by this way and it will make the orientation more easy.

Many times, it's difficult to understand the image scale of astronomical images.

Due that, I will add a Moon circle in some of the images to show the angular scale in a sky.

The full Moon has an angular size of ~30 arc minutes, that's equal to ~0,5 degrees.

Cygnus zoom in series, a study of the apparent scale in the sky.

Note. The apparent size of the full Moon is marked as a gray circle at lover Right corner.

Images are in mapped colors from emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen & B=Oxygen.

Location in the Sky, star map overlay

Images used in this series:

A giant, 18-panels, mosaic of the Cygnus constellation with 200mm canon EF at f1.8:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

North America and Pelican Nebulae with 300mm Tokina AT-X at f2.8:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ngc-7000-north-america-pelican-nebulae.html

Closeup of North America Nebula with Meade LX 200 GPS, reduced to f5 ~2000mm:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ngc-7000-closeup-hst-palette-preview.html

Cygnus collection as a poster

2012-01-08T14:39:00.001+02:00

Treasures of Cygnus

I made a collection out of my images from the Cygnus constellation.

At center lays a giant 18-panels mosaic of Cygnus nebulae as a natural color composition. Surrounding closeup images, seen in large central mosaic, are in HST-palette. All images are shot with the Baader narrow band filter set, H-alpha, S-II & O-III.

Original, full resolution, poster has a massive size, ~21.000 x 16.000 pixels!

All images used in this presentation, with technical details and labels, can be found from my portfolio at:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/

Ps.

This mid winter has been worst I can remember up here 65N... Over two Months 100% cloud cover and it doesn't look any better in near future either. Very frustrating.

A video from Autumn 2011 images

2012-01-06T14:06:00.003+02:00

Autumn season 2011

Three minute video, 640x480 pixels, from my images of Autu mn 2011.
(If you have a slow connection, please, hit the pause and wait movie to load)

Here is a direct link to my main work from last Autumn, a giant 18-panel mosaic of Cygnus nebulae:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

Last day of 2011, a collection of images.

2011-12-31T12:49:00.001+02:00

Happy New Year 2012

Since this is a last day of year 2011, I have made a collection of images from the Autumn season 2011. As usually at this time of year, the weather has been very cloudy, up here 65N. Last couple of months has been blocked 100% by clouds. I managed to use every clear moment, so there are quite a few images from this Autumn, including my main work, a giant 18-panel mosaic from the Cygnus constellation.

A slideshow

click > to start

All images, in this slideshow, can be seen in my portfolio with a technical details:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p909207080

First image for the season was the Propeller Nebula in Cygnus

Original blog post, with a technical details, can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html

Last image for the current season was the 18-panel mosaic from the Cygnus constellation

Original blog post, with a technical details, can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

Merry Saturnalia and happy new year!

2011-12-23T23:26:00.003+02:00

Clear skies to all!

J-P Metsävainio & Astro Anarchy observatory

Ps.

Original image, used in this manipulation, can be seen here:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/09/bubble-nebula-reprocessed-again.html

Ps2.

Saturnalia

Cygnus mosaic as a stereo pair 3D

2011-12-19T21:10:00.002+02:00

Parallel vision stereo pairs

Cross vision stereo pairs at end of the post

Parallel vision 3D

Closeup 1

Closeup2

Closeup 3

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

Cross vision stereo pairs

Cross vision 3D

Closeup 1

Closeup 2

Closeup 3

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

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

Cugnus mosaic as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-12-19T21:05:00.002+02:00

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.

Note, a largish file, 1900x1200 pixels and 3,5 meg.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

Some details from the large image above

Det.1

Det. 2

Det 3.

Ps.

Please leave a comment, I'll like to know, how many of my readers are able to watch my 3D-experiments?

Do you prefer an anaglyph method or stereo pair free view?

If there are very few readers interested about this kind of "nontraditional" and experimental astronomical image processing, I'm not going to post them in my blog.

I will publish them only in my 3D-portfolio under the Zenfolio service:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

November Challenge winner, IC 405

2011-12-12T18:10:00.001+02:00

This mapped color image of IC 405 & 410 was a monthly challenge winner in CCD imaging and processing forum at Cloudynights.com

Original blog post, with technical details, can be found here:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ic405-410.html

Cygnus mosaic, 18-panels and 22 x 14 degrees of sky

2011-12-09T17:22:00.001+02:00

Finally finalized, with a lots of work... uh

NOTE! A large image, ~1200x2000 pixels and ~3Mb

Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

The "noise" in background is not a noise but countless number of stars!

Even larger, 3500 x 2200 pixels and ~10Mb, image can be seen from HERE.

(Original resolution is about 15.000 x 10.000 pixels.)

Some technical information about the image:

Original size for the 18 panels mosaic ~15.000 x10.000 pixels
Resolution 5,5 arch seconds / pixel
Image center, RA 20h 27s, Dec 43d 30m 45s
Area of this image is about 22 x14 degrees of sky.
Full Moon has an angular diameter of 0,5 degrees, it fits to the area of this image about 1230 times!

A cropped images, to show the resolution

(Image size is reduced)

A detail from the North America and Pelican Nebulae area.
More closeups in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

A closeup from the "Cirrus" area of the large panorama.

Image in visual spectrum

Image is 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. NOTE! A large image, ~1920x1200 pixels and ~3Mb

A Gray scale image of Hydrogen alpha emission

can be seen HERE (Note, about 7,3 meg)

Orientation in the sky

overlay with a star map

Constellation Cygnus

This is a third expansion for this mosaic

I started the Cygnus mosaic project by shooting a three panel mosaic from the "Cirrus area"

Blog post can be seen here: http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cirrus-of-cygnus-project-finalized.html

Three panel mosaic of Cirrus of Cygnus.

The second phase was an eight panel mosaic. The blog post can be seen from here:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

An eight panel mosaic.

All mosaics, made so far from the Cygnus constellation.

An experimental starless image to show the actual nebula

(NEW) An experimental 3D-study about this area

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

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.

Click an image for a 1900 x 1200 pixels version!

Other 3D-studies and viewing methods in my portfolio:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Technical details for the 18 panel mosaic

Panels shot for this mosaic.

I have used a very fast camera optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, full open to collect all the data in this mosaic. Due that, total exposure time is relatively short, ~22h, there are some very dim formations clearly visible.

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Levels, curves and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8

Camera, QHY9

Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider

Filters used, Baader 7nm H-alpha, S-II & O-III

Here are all technical data for the H-alpha emission line:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-mosaic-is-getting-large-18.html

I had ready made eight panel mosaic with all three emission line, H-a, S-II and O-III I managed to collect very little new color data but I had some earlier images from this area. I used all of them to finalize this color composition. Gaps between the color data are filled with an averaged colors from surrounding color data.

Here are links to older images used for the missing color data

North America and the Pelican Nebulae:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ngc-7000-north-america-pelican-nebulae.html

Lower parts of previous image:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/dark-dust-in-cygnus-project-finalized.html

Sharpless 119, Sh2-119:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/sharpless-119-sh2-119.html

The Tulip nebula, a wide field image:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/01/tulip-nebula-sh2-101-wide-field-closeup.html

The Crescent Nebula, a wide field image:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/01/ngc-6888-crescent-nebula-wide-field.html

Simeis 147, a supernova remnant as a stereo pair 3D

2011-12-08T12:42:00.001+02:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Closeups as 3D stereo

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/simeis-147-supernova-remnant.html

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

Simeis 147, a supernova remnant as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-12-08T12:35:00.001+02:00

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.

A closeup from above image

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/simeis-147-supernova-remnant.html

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

Simeis 147, a supernova remnant

2011-12-01T16:50:00.001+02:00

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, the "noise" in background is not a noise but countless stars!

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, ~13h.

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.

EDIT

I just did a small calculation, how long it 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.

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 50% 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 arcseconds/pixel

H-alpha 34x900s, Binned 1x1

H-alpha 14x1800s, Binned 1x1

Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha is ~13h

O-III & S-II channels are from an older image, it can be seen here

Cygnus Mosaic is getting large, 18 panels now

2011-11-29T11:03:00.001+02:00

22 x14 degrees of sky from the constellation Cygnus
The "Chinese Dragon Nebula"

H-alpha emission, 18 panels, mosaic image of Nebulae in Cygnus

Download link for the 2600x3950 pixels image HERE. (Note, about 7,3 meg)
The noise in a background, is not a noise but countless number of stars!

I was busy last night

I started to image about Four a clock! Up here, it's dark enough for astronomical imaging at that time.

My previous project, an eight panel mosaic of Cygnus Nebulae, is starting to grow! I was not planning to shoot so large mosaic but since the first one turned to be so good and funny to do, lots of work though, I decided to go on. The Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens is very fast optically, so the needed exposure time per panel is reasonable. I shot all 12 new panels between Four and Two a clock , Ten hours straight, no pauses.

I will shoot other channels, S-II & O-III, little by little. If weather cooperate, I might have this ready before Christmas. This is the largest mosaic, I have done so far.

The "Chinese Dragon Nebula"

Do you see a Chinese Dragon in upper image?

Some technical information about the image

Original size for the 18 panels mosaic 14.000 x 9000 pixels
Resolution 5,5 arch seconds / pixel
Image center, RA 20h 27s, Dec 43d 30m 45s
Area of this image is about 22 x14 degrees of sky.

Full Moon has an angular diameter of 0,5 degrees, it fits to the area of this image about 1230 times!

Start of the Cygnus project

I started the Cygnus mosaic project by shooting a three panel mosaic from the "Cirrus area"

Blog post can be seen here: http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cirrus-of-cygnus-project-finalized.html

Image in mapped colors, H-a = Green, S-II = Red and O-III = Blue

The second phase was an eight panel mosaic. The blog post can be seen from here:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

Eight panel mosaic. This image gives an idea, how the large mosaic will look in colors.

Relative sizes of mosaics.

Technical details for the 18 panel mosaic

I have used a very fast camera optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, full open to collect all the data in this mosaic. Due that, total exposure time is relatively short, ~12h, there are some very dim formations clearly visible.

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Levels, curves and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8

Camera, QHY9

Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha

Exposures for Eighteen panels,

Panel 1

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 2

H-a, 5x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 3

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 4

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 5

H-a, 5x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 6

H-a, 8x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 7

H-a, 6x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 8

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 9

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 10

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 11

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 12

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 13

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 14

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 15

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 16

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 17

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 18

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Total exposure time for all panels ~12h

Top of light exposures, there are calibration files shot.

21 Flat frames

99 Bias frames

19 Dark frames

NOTE.
No star or noise reduction, nor sharpening, are used.

A collection of "Sub mosaics" of Cygnus mosaic

2011-11-27T20:09:00.001+02:00

A series of panoramic mosaics.
Mosaics are done from the material used in my large, eight panel, mosaic of Cygnus Nebulae.

The "Cirrus area" of Cygnus

From North America & Pelican Nebulae to the "Cirrus area" at Right.

Four panels mosaic from North America & Pelican Nebulae to Crescent Nebula.

Three panel mosaic from "Cirrus area" of Cygnus to the Tulip Nebula at upper Right.

Two panel mosaic from Butterfly to the Crescent Nebula.

Two panel mosaic from Butterfly to the "Cirrus area" of Cygnus.

Couple of panoramas in natural color palette from narrowband channels

Two panel mosaic from Butterfly to the "Cirrus area" of Cygnus.

From North America & Pelican Nebulae to the "Cirrus area" at Right.

The "Cirrus area" of Cygnus

Three panel mosaic from "Cirrus area" of Cygnus to the Tulip Nebula at upper Right.

I made mosaic panoramas above, since I now have several over lapping images from constellation Cygnus.
The massive resolution, eight panel, mosaic of Nebulae in Cygnus can be seen in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

Eight panel mosaic of Cygnus, used for the panoramas

An eight panel mosaic of Nebulae in constellation Cygnus.
All panoramic images above are made from this material.

A very large, 7,5 meg and 3000x2000 pixel, version can be seen HERE.

North America & Pelican Nebulae as a stereo pair 3D

2011-11-26T11:19:00.001+02:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D¨

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ngc-7000-north-america-pelican-nebulae.html

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

North America & Pelican Nebulae as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-11-26T11:14:00.001+02:00

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.

Click for the large image

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ngc-7000-north-america-pelican-nebulae.html

Wide field image in HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Note, the "noise" in background is not a noise but countless stars!

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

Cygnus mosaic as a stereo pair 3D

2011-11-25T09:48:00.001+02:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

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

Grande mosaic of Cygnus as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-11-24T11:22:00.001+02:00

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.

Click for the large image

Note how dark nebulae are shadowing emission ones.

Vertical composition

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

An Eight panel mosaic of Nebulae in Cygnus in mapped colors.

NOTE, this is a largish file, 1400x1950 pixels and 2,8 meg.

Ps.

An anaglyph 3D-image from the "Cirrus area", of this mosaic, can be seen here:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cirrus-of-cygnus-as-anaglyph-redcyan-3d.html

Stereo pairs from "Cirrus of Cygnus", Parallel & Cross vision:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cirrus-of-cygnus-as-stereo-pair-3d.html

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

A two frame panorama from Cygnus

2011-11-23T15:36:00.001+02:00

A panoramic image from the Butterfly to the Crescent Nebula
In constellation Cygnus

Click for the large image

This is a two panel mosaic, cropped from the large, eight panel, Cygnus mosaic.
Image is in mapped colors from an emission of ionized elements,
Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogfen & Blue=Oxygen

I have published some images composed from the material, I collected for the large panorama of Cygnus Nebulae. Original size for this high resolution image is ~7000x3000 pixels. Technical details can be found from an older post, Cygnus project, the grande finale.

A detail from the image above.

A narrow stripe, a detail from the Cygnus mosaic

2011-11-23T09:47:00.001+02:00

This image is a narrow cut from my previous post, Cygnus project, the grande finale.

Image is reduced a lot, original, full size, mosaic is 14.000x10.000 pixels.
Image stripe in this post is shown at resolution 640x2700, it might take few moments to load, sorry.
The idea is to show, what kind of resolution a well collimated and focused, 200mm f1.8, high end camera lens can deliver.

A cropped and reduced stripe from the Cygnus mosaic in mapped colors.

Image is combined from emissions of ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen.

Large area and technical details can be seen in my previous post, Cygnus project, the grande finale.

Cygnus project, the grande finale

2011-11-22T10:49:00.001+02:00

Mosaic of dancing Nebulae

in constellation Cygnus

An Eight panel mosaic of Nebulae in Cygnus in mapped colors.

NOTE, this is a largish file, 1400x1950 pixels and 2,8 meg.

Direct link to a 2000x3000 pixel version HERE. (7,5 meg)
(Original one is ~14.000x10.000 pixels)

It took couple of Months to shoot all the needed frames for this mosaic and I did use every possible clear moment. This mosaic image has eight full size (3500x2500 pixels) panels and the final image has a massive size of 7.000 x 10.000 pixels. For every panel, I shot three different images of emission of ionized elements, Hydrogen, Sulfur and Oxygen. (H-a, S-II and O-III). This image is a mapped color composition showing Hydrogen as Green, Sulfur as Red and Oxygen as Blue.

Image spans about 10 degrees horizontally and 14 degrees vertically. (Apparent size of the full Moon is ~30 arc minutes = 0,5 degrees. Full moon fits to this are at about 480 times!)

Generally this mosaic took a lots of work to finalize and it was kind of difficult to process since the star field is so very dense at galactic plane. Overall I'm happy with this result!

Northern constellation Cygnus (aka "Norther Cross") locates at the plane of our Milky Way and it's a treasure box of beautiful nebulae. Bright supergigant star Gamma Cygni can be seen at center Right, next to the Butterfly Nebula, IC 1318. The bright Blueish spot at upper Right is the Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888.
At top Left, a beautiful open cluster, NGC 6819 , can be faintly seen. (It's well resolved in full res. image)
Two bright objects at bottom middle are Sh2-112 and a bluish Sh2-115. At bottom Right are parts of the North America and Pelicän nebulae visible. The propeller Nebula can be seen at center left. There are many other objects in this large field.

Overlay with a star map.

Closeups from the large panorama

Click for a large image!

Open cluster, NGC 6819, at middle, from upper Left corner of the mosaic.

I have finally teamed this f1.8 lens and now all of the stars are pinpoints to edge to edge!

Closeup from lower Right corner shows part of the North America & Pelican Nebulae.

The Crescent Nebula from upper Right.

Gamma Cygni from center Right and a part of the Butterfly Nebula.

A closeup of the "Cirrus" area from lower Left of the large mosaic.

New pictures from the panorama material

Since I now have a load of processed panels for the panorama, I have composed some new individual high resolution images out of them.

Click for a large image!

Mountains and dust of Pelican Nebula

A two panel panorama from Butterfly to the Crescent nebula

A two panel mosaic from the "Cirrus" area to the Butterfly Nebula

I started this project by shooting a Three panel mosaic of "Cirrus of Cygnus"

"Cirrus of Cygnus", this area can be seen at Left in an image at top.

A "Natural" Color composition from the emission line channels

As usually, I have done color compositions close to visual spectrum from narrowband channels. Since I have so many (too many...?) images in my blog post, I show just couple of them here. The method used for this color scheme is following:
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.

Click for a large image!

Large Eight panel mosaic in natural color composition from the NB channels

A two panel mosaic from the same material.

An animation, nebula with and without stars

This animation will show more details in the nebula, since human brains gets easily fooled to see shapes in a cloud of dots, like stars are. Please, let the animated GIF load for few seconds to see it animated. ( 1,2 meg)

Click for a large image!

I think, that dim Blueish arch like formations, seen at top Left, are some reflections.

8,5nm O-III filter is too wide. to block all of the light pollution. and reflections can happened.

Technical details

I have used a very fast camera optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, full open to collect all the data in this mosaic. Due that, total exposure time is relatively short, ~15h, there are some very dim formations clearly visible.

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8

Camera, QHY9

Image Scale, ~5 arcseconds/pixel

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha and Baader O-III 8,5nm

Exposures for Eight panels,

Panel 1 (Top Left),

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 2x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 2x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 2 (Top Right),

H-a, 5x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 6x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 3 (Upper Left),

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 3x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 2x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 4 (Upper Right),

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 6x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 6x300 Binned 3x3

Panel 5 (Lower Left),

H-a, 5x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 3x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 2x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 6 (Lower Right),

H-a, 8x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 6x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 6x300 Binned 3x3

Panel 7 (Bottom Left),

H-a, 6x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 3x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 2x300 Binned 3x3

Panel 8 (Bottom Right),

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 2x300s Binned 3x3

S-II, 2x300s Binned 3x3

Total exposure time for all channels ~15h

Top of light exposures, there are calibration files shot.
H-a, 21 Flat frames
O-III, 21 Flat frames
S-III, 21 Flat frames
All filters:
99 Bias frames
19 Dark frames

Pre publishing a small sample of Cygnus mosaic

2011-11-21T23:05:00.001+02:00

Final publication tomorrow.

A small part from an eight panel mosaic of Cygnus Nebula area.

This is kind of pre publishing for a large work, I have finalized an eight panel mosaic from the grand nebula of Cygnus constellation. I have finally tamed my super fast camera optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8. Stars are now absolute pinpoints from edge to edge! I't wasn't an easy task, it took hundreds of iterations to match the CCD planar to the optical path at accuracy of fraction of microns . Yes, that's the needed accuracy, I almost gave up many times.

An other area from the grande mosaic of Cygnus.

Final publication tomorrow.

A mosaic from Butterfly to the "Cirrus" area of Cygnus

2011-11-19T11:37:00.001+02:00

Nebulae

in constellation Cygnus

A two panel mosaic, bicolor composition from H-alpha (Red) and O-III (Green & Blue).

This combination is very close to a visual spectrum.

A two panel mosaic of H-alpha emission alone.

I noticed, that my two projects, Cirrus of Cygnus and Butterfly to Crescent, are partly overlapping.

I will shoot couple of more panels to build a six panel mosaic from this area, when ever the weather allows me to do so...

I wen trough my raw images for Butterfly to Crescent project and I noticed, there was a one O-III frame usable, others was destroyed by speeding clouds. I processed the O-III frame and made a bicolor mosaic composition at top.

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 40% weight

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8

Camera, QHY9

Image Scale, ~5 arcseconds/pixel

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha and Baader O-III 8,5nm

Exposures for two panels,

Panel 1(Left),

H-a, 6x600s Binned 1x1

O-III, 1x300s Binned 2x2

Panel 2(Right),

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

O-III, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Butterfly to Crescent, a new Cygnus project started

2011-11-18T12:44:00.001+02:00

A two panel mosaic from the Hydrogen alpha emission.
NOTE. the "Noise" in the background is not a noise but a countless amount of stars!

Last night I was able to shoot two panels in H-a for a new imaging project from Cygnus. At upper left the Butterfly nebula and in middle, the Crescent Nebula.

Clouds rolled in before I was able to shoot any other channels, so colors will follow later.

Canon EF 200 mm at f1.8 is an extreme fast lens to collect photons, only one hour of ten minute subs per panel was needed for good signal to noise.

A closeup to show the resolution.

I just noticed, that this new panorama and my previous project, Cirrus of Cygnus, are overlapping!

I hadn't purpose to build a large mosaic but since they are overlapping, in some parts, I will make one.

QHY9 camera is a very good match with wider field camera lenses due the smallish, 5,4 microns, pixel size.

Nowadays I', processing all under sampled images, like one above, up-scaled 200% to maintain the smallest possible details. It needs a lots of memory and the processing gpower though! A single, up-scaled gray scale FIT-format, image will take about 500 meg to handle (32bit floating point), usually there are more than a dozen of them...

A gray scale two panel mosaic with my previous project.

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 40% weight

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8

Camera, QHY9

Image Scale, ~5 arcseconds/pixel

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha

Exposures for two panels,

Panel 1, 6x600s Binned 1x1

Panel 2, 6x600s Binned 1x1

Cirrus of Cygnus as a stereo pair 3D

2011-11-17T16:01:00.000+02:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3d

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cirrus-of-cygnus-project-finalized.html

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

Cirrus of Cygnus as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3d

2011-11-17T15:57:00.001+02:00

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.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cirrus-of-cygnus-project-finalized.html

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

NGC 7000, North America & Pelican Nebulae

2011-11-15T17:51:00.005+02:00

North America and Pelican Nebulae area

in constellation Cygnus

Wide field image in HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Note, the "noise" in background is not a noise but countless stars!

A cropped closeup to show the resolution. After countless tweaks, stars are now pinpoints from edge to edge, this lens is very sharp full open at f1.8 but focusing is more than difficult... the critrical focus zone is about 7 microns, 7/1000mm!

Canon EF 200mm f1.8 is a monster lens (fastest tele lens in the world). Total exposure time for all channels is just 4h 30min for this relative deep narrow band image, shot under a heavy light pollution.

As can be seen from the image, North America and Pelican Nebulae are actually a single emission area, divided visually to two parts by a dark nebula at front.

I have shot a narrower wide field shot from lower part of this formation, earlier in this Autumn, with a Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens, it can be seen HERE. Area is from just bellow the North America Nebula.

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

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 50% 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 arcseconds/pixel

H-alpha 15x600s, Binned 1x1

O-III 6x600s, Binned 1x1

S-II 6x600s, Binned 1x1

Ps.

There is a tiny nebula in lower Right crner, near the "Pelican's head", if somebody knows, what it is, please leave a comment here.

It emits strongest at H-a but there are O-III and S-II bands visible too.

Update.
A friendly Blog follower just posted a comment about this nebula.
It's an emission nebula designated as a GN 20.43.9, thank you.

Cirrus of Cygnus, project finalized

2011-11-14T15:12:00.005+02:00

Cirrus like gas filaments

in constellation Cygnus

HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Same image, than above, but with suppressed stars to show the actual nebula complex better.

A series of closeups to show the resolution, not a bad one for a 200mm camera lens...

An animated image to show some interesting structures under the star field.

Version in colors of 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.

Last night I was able to finalize a three panel mosaic from Cirrus of Cygnus. I have planned to shoot this formation a long time, finally there, yahoo...

There are very few images around showing this area, it can be seen in many wide field images though but I haven't seen any images focusing to just it. This area can be seen in this APOD image Left, at about ten a clock position. This is not a bright target but by using an extremely fast, 200mm f1.8, optics a total exposure time for all three panels was very reasonable, ~7 hours.

The bright, magnitude 2.9, star at middle Left is the BSC 18 Del Cyg (HR7528). This image spans about 12 degrees horizontally (24 full Moons side by side) and it's part of large nebula complex around constellation Cygnus. "Northern Cross" nebulosities are located at distance of about 2000 light years. At lower mid Left lays the "Propeller Nebula", I shot a little narrower wide field image of it in this Autumn, it can be seen HERE.

It does look like a Cirrus cloud!

Technical details:

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Levels, curves, color combine and mosaic 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 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha

Panel 1, 8x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 2, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 3, 5x 900s Binned 1x1

Filter, Baader 8nm S-II

Panel 1, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 2, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 3, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Filter Baader 8,5nm O-III (I need a narrower one...)

Panel 1, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 2, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Panel 3, 6x300s Binned 3x3

Ps.

A vertical composition

Looks like some exotic plant...

IC405 & 410 as a stereo pair 3D

2011-11-13T11:38:00.000+02:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ic405-410.html

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

IC405 & 410 as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-11-13T11:35:00.000+02:00

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.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ic405-410.html

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

Cirrus of Cygnus, start of the new project

2011-11-10T21:52:00.006+02:00

A Hydrogen alpha filtered monochrome image of thin, cirrus like, filaments from an edge of large emission area in constellation Cygnus.

I have started a new imaging project. This time I will shoot a three panel panoramic mosaic since I like to show a whole network of thin filaments at edge of Cygnus emission nebula. This image spans about 12 degrees horizontally... that's 24 full Moons side by side. I will shoot all three emission channels for this, when ever my local weather let me do so...
The "Propeller Nebula" can be seen at bottom center Left. HERE is an image of it from this Autumn and colors of it will give a hint, how this new image going to look when ready.

An experimental starless version

Same image with suppressed stars to show the actual nebula complex better.
It's funny to see, how much more details can be seen in nebula by this way, even though stars in original image are absolute pinpoints.

A starless closeup reveals some details

Very odd looking loops in filaments... One at lower Left looks like a lasso.

Real Cirrus clouds to compare

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 50% 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 arcseconds/pixel

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha

Exposures for three panels, from Left to Right

Panel 1, 8x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 2, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 3, 5x 900s Binned 1x1

IC405 & 410

2011-11-09T17:31:00.001+02:00

IC 405 & 410

In constellation Auriga

HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

An experimental starless version to show the actual nebula

A clear night at last!

I shot about three hours of H-alpaha light for IC405 & 410, after finalizing H-a for my new project , "Cirrus of Cygnus". (It will be a three panel narrow band mosaic about dimmer outer structures of Cygnus Nebula complex.)

Little by little I have managed to reduce tilt between my CCD and the Cnon EF 200mm f1.8 lens.
At f1.8, every single micron makes a big difference. Working with an extreme fast lens, like this, is very demanding. Tolerances are very small, the critical focus zone is only 7microns, that's 7/1000mm!

Other channels, O-III and S-II are taken from an older image from year 2008. Star colors are borrowed from an RGB-image, shot at 2007.

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

An animated image to show the nebula with and 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 50% 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 arcseconds/pixel

New exposures H-alpha 13x900s,

S-II and O-III information are from an older image

Veil Nebula as a Stereo pair 3D-study

2011-10-31T20:10:00.002+02:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/veil-nebula-supernova-remnant.html

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

Veil Nebula as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-10-31T20:07:00.002+02:00

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.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/veil-nebula-supernova-remnant.html

Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant

2011-10-30T13:13:00.010+02:00

Veil Nebula

Supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

Last night I collected few more hours H-alpha emission, between the clouds, for this SNR in Cygnus.
Image is not as deep as I wanted but the weather has been working against me for a long time now...

Veil Nebula is a cloud of ionized gas and dust, leftovers from an exploded star. The star exploded some 5000-8000 years ago at distance of about 1470 light years. This, relatively faint target, is difficult to image due the large angular diameter, about three degrees, and a dense star field.
This is a second version of this object, older version can be seen Here. I have made a 3D-animation about the possible shape of this SNR, it can be seen Here.

HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

1:1 cropped image to show the resolution.
Not a bad one for the 200mm camera lens...

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 50% 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 arcseconds/pixel

New exposures H-alpha 13x1200s,

S-II and O-III information are from an older image

Image processing test with Sharpless 119

2011-10-24T15:35:00.005+03:00

I made a test, how image resolution gets effected by a stacking algorithm. When images are registered, they are moved and rotated by a fraction of the pixel accuracy. Depending on used algorithm, there will be some level of blurring in a final stacked image. In this test, CCDStack software is used to calibrate, register and stack the raw-images. Two similar processing are made from the same material, one with normal workflow and the second with images scaled up 200%.

This is a 100% animated crop from images, stacked from a 100% size and 200% size calibrated frames.

10 x 1200s H-alpha with a QHY9 camera and the Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8.

"Mitchell" algorithm is used for up scaling all of the 200% sized frames.

An animation from a single, cropped and 400% up scaled, 1200s H-alpha exposure.
One image is registered and second not. HWFM in none registered image is 1,6 and in registered 2,4.
Method of register is most commonly used Bicubic B-spline.

Specially, if image are undersampled, like in this example, the blurring effects gets stronger and there is a risk to loose some of the finer details.
Down side of up scaling images to 200% large, is the needed amount of computer power and memory! Images will be four times large in file size. In this case a single frame, saved as a 16bit TIFF, will be about 130 MB.
CCDStack will use much more memory per image since images are internally processed as a 32bit floating point image space. All post processing in PhotoShop is done to a 200% sized version.

I have reprocessed Sh2-119 images with a new method, original versions can be found here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/sharpless-119-sh2-119.html

Sharpless 119

In constellation Cygnus, Ra 21h 18m Dec +44 00'

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

(Looks much like a wide screen version of the "Rosette Nebula".)

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

Technical details:

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8

Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider

Image Scale, 3,5 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures H-alpha 10x1200s, binned 1x1O-III 3x1200s, binned 3x3

S-II 3x1200s, binned 2x2

Total exposure time ~5h

IC 1396 as a Stereo Pair 3D

2011-10-19T19:19:00.000+03:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/ic-1396-home-of-elephants-trunk-nebula.html

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

IC 1396 as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-10-19T19:16:00.000+03:00

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.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/ic-1396-home-of-elephants-trunk-nebula.html

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

Dark dust in Cygnus as a stereo pair 3D

2011-10-19T09:41:00.001+03:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/dark-dust-in-cygnus-project-finalized.html

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

Dark dust in Cygnus as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-10-19T09:37:00.002+03:00

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.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/dark-dust-in-cygnus-project-finalized.html

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

IC 1396, the home of the "Elephant's trunk Nebula"

2011-10-17T15:29:00.005+03:00

IC 1396

In constellation Cepheus

HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

At the same night, 16. October, I shot my previous target, I had some time left before dawn.

I shot few frames, 6x1200s, of H-alpha for IC 1396. Last time I shot this target, I was using a HY8 single shot color astronomical camera. As it's a color camera, bayer matrix cuts down the effective resolution about 1/4 of the native resolution of CCD. I wanted to test, how visible this difference is.

Older image of IC 1396 can be seen HERE. The difference in resolution is impressive, stars are much tighter now. i did use O-III and S-II channels from this older image to build color compositions. (Resolution of those channels doesn't have any effect to my final image, since I'm using my "Tone Mapping" technique.

IC 1396 spans hundreds of light years at distance of about 3000 light years in constellation Cepheus. The famous formation of glowing gases, the "Elephant's Trunk Nebula" can be seen at six a clock position.

This is an active star formation region and it has several massive young stars inside of it, coursing the ionization of elements in this emission nebula.

I have made a study about the apparent size in a sky:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/07/ic-1396-scale-in-sky-zoom-in-series-in.html

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

Older, longer focal length, closeup image of the "Elephant's trunk Nebula"
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/01/elephants-trunk-nebula-inside-ic-1396.html

A 100% crop from the image to show the resolution.

Technical details:

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8

Camera, QHY9 , a cooled astronomical camera

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS and the Lodestar guider

Image Scale, ~3,5 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures H-alpha 6x1200s, binned 1x1

(S-II and O-III are borrowed from an older image)

O-III 8x1200s, binned 2x2, QHY8

S-II 3x1200s, binned 2x2, QHY8

Dark dust in Cygnus, project finalized

2011-10-16T12:56:00.007+03:00

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

This beautiful area is just bellow the North America and Pelican Nebulae. The bright area at upper middle Right, is known as IC 5068.

I selected this as a target, since there is a beautiful dark dust line blocking light at front of the ionization zone and the area is not too commonly imaged. You can see the image in just Ha-light and an image about the relative location in my previous blog post.

Area of interest, just bellow NGC7000, can be seen in this image as a gray scale rectangle.

HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

A 100% crop from the image to show the resolution.

An experimental starless image to show the nebula better.

Technical problems are still driving me nuts... I had to operate nearly everything manually, since my TCF-s focuser and the filter wheel are out of order. Focusing at f2.8 is not an easy task, the critical focus zone is just about 15/1000mm. I had to refocus between the frames, since temperature dropped during the night and I didn't have my temp. compensating focuser operational.

Technical details:

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations,

added in about 50% weight.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8

Camera, QHY9 , a cooled astronomical camera

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS and the Lodestar guider

Image Scale, ~3,5 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures H-alpha 19x1200s, binned 1x1

O-III 8x1200s, binned 2x2

S-II 6x1200s, binned 2x2

Total exposure time ~12h

Dark dust of Cygnus in H-alpha light, a new project

2011-10-14T11:34:00.002+03:00

Image from two previous nights has now 17x1200s H-alpha light collected.

I will shoot other two emission lines as soon as the weather permits.

This area is just below the "North America and Pelican Nebulae". The bright area at upper middle Right, is known as IC 5068. I selected this as a target, since there is a beautiful dark dust line blocking light at front of the ionization zone.

Area of interest can be seen in this image as a gray scale rectangle.

This has been a very frustrating Autumn...

First my observatory PC died. After installing a new computer and all the software, my camera stopped to work. (I'm shooting now with an older model, fixed by soldering and duct tape)

Two days ago, the filter wheel started to act like a lottery machine, now I have to rotate it manually.

Top of that, last night my trusted temperature compensating focuser, TCF-s, refused to work at all.

After five hours of trying to fix it, I did focus manually as well as I could. (At f2.8, the critical focus zone is 17 microns... that's 17/1000mm) Lots of work is done and money spend, just for couple of images. Sometimes I feel, best solution is quit and sell my gears, who ever going to buy this expensive pile of junk. Maybe I feel better tomorrow, after some sleep...

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 50% weight in final image.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8

Camera, QHY9

Guiding, Lodestar and Meade LX200 GPS 12"

Image Scale, 3,5 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures H-alpha 19x1200s, binned 1x1

Total exposure time so far 6h 20min.

Astro anarchy gets published

2011-10-13T12:40:00.003+03:00

My image of the "Wizard Nebula", NGC 7380, get published in the Discovery Magazine.
In October 2011 issue, there is an article about multiverse, and they did use my image with it. Images can be found from a table of content , page 2, and in the story, page 31.

This is the used image. Original blog post, with a technical details, can be found HERE.

An image, just for a fun...

2011-10-12T11:45:00.005+03:00

Click for a large image.

This is a computer generated image, I don't have a wall full of my images.

I used older frames and wallpaper since some of my images loos like old oil paintings.

Ps.

Photographic prints from my images can be bought from my portfolio:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1072219942

Just click an image and there will be a list of sizes and prices at Right, like bellow.

A4 print, 15€

A3 print, 21€

20" x 16", 31€ (50 x 41 cm)

30" x 20", 49,95€ (76 x 50 cm)

Many other sizes and shapes are available too.

NOTE. Prints are real photographs in Fujicolor paper.

If you don't like to buy online, just leave me a message at my e-mail:

astroanarchy@gmail.com and I will take care of rest.

sama suomeksi

Valokuvavedoksia kuvistani voi ostaa portfoliostani:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1072219942

Klikkaa kuvaa niin sen oikealle puolelle avautuu koko ja hintalista, kuten alla.

A4 print, 15€

A3 print, 21€

20" x 16", 31€ (50 x 41 cm)

30" x 20", 49,95€ (76 x 50 cm)

Monia muita kokoja ja muotoja on myös saatavilla.

HUOM. Kuvat ovat oikeita valokuvia Fujicolor valokuvapaperille.

Jos et halua käyttää verkkokauppaa, niin jätä minulle viesti osoitteeseen:

astroanarchy@gmail.com , niin hoidan tilauksen puolestasi.

Series of panoramas

2011-10-10T14:17:00.015+03:00

Images in this post are trying to show, how they looks, if hanging on the wall

I made a small series of panoramas for a printing purposes for a customer. They turned to be so nice looking, that I publish them here too.

Some of the images are meant to be printed as two framed copy, like a sample above, and then placed side by side.

Some of the printed images will be huge, about 200cm x 80cm / copy! Final two frames panoramic pair will be over four meters wide... luckily there are enough resolution for that , with most of my images.

For an example, a price for a high quality framed canvas will be about 300-350€ / one square meter, 100 x 100 cm. ( = ~3.3 x3.3 feet) There are many other framing and media options.

Few sample images on a wall
Click for large images

Bubble Nebula

California Nebula

Butterfly and Crescent Nebulae

Sharpless 119

Sombrero Glaxy, M104

Pack Man Nebula

Silver Dollar Galaxy, two frames

Silver Dollar Galaxy, one frame

Moon ( This image doesn't look like a normal Moon image, explanation HERE)

Cloeup of the Lagoon Nebula

Ps.

I will open up soon a collection of framed samples, in my portfolio. It will make easier to see, how my images might look on the wall.

Any of images in my portfolio, can be ordered as a print, practically in any size.

Imagination is only limit with printing and framing options.

Portfolio: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1072219942

Ps.2

BTW. No matter, where you live, since I'm able to use a nearest printing service to your location, to minimize delivery and customs costs.

An animation of DWB 111, the "Propeller Nebula", stars vs starless

2011-10-09T11:12:00.002+03:00

The starless version shows the actual nebula. It's funny, how much details one can see from the nebula,

when all stars are removed. An experimental method used for star removal has become very accurate.

Note.

A starlike dot, in up center left, is a planetary nebula PK 79+5.1, a large bluish area,

to seven a clock direction from PK 79+5.1, is a possible planetary nebula PN PM 1-320.

This image was my first light for the Autumn season 2011.

Original blog post, with technical details, can be found from HERE.

Ps.

Above image of the Propeller Nebula, from Cygnus constellation, looks very much like a piece of marble tile bellow.

Sharpless 119 as a 3D stereo pair images

2011-10-07T12:41:00.002+03:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/sharpless-119-sh2-119.html

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

Sharpless 199 as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-10-07T12:37:00.001+03:00

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.

As usually, I have turned the image of Sharpless 119, Sh2-119, to an experimental 3D-study.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/sharpless-119-sh2-119.html

Sharpless 119, Sh2-119

2011-10-06T12:51:00.009+03:00

Sharpless 119

In constellation Cygnus, Ra 21h 18m Dec +44 00'

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

Sharpless 119 is a largish emission nebula in constellation Cygnus. There are not too many images of it around due the close proximity of eye catchers, North America and Pelican Nebulae. Sh2-199 locates just three degrees East from the NGC 7000, North America Nebula. A bright magnitude 5 star 68 Cygni, can be seen at very center of the image above. There are several dark globules at the Southern part of the nebula.

This image covers about three degrees of sky, that's six full Moons side by side. There are some interesting looking structures in the nebula, straight line type of gas formations, they can be seen at Five and Six a clock positions, starting from image center to almost the edge of the image above.

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

(Looks much like a "wide screen version" of the Rosette Nebula.)

A 100% crop from above image. Not a bad sharpness for a 300mm Tokina AT-X camera lens, full open at f2.8. I have had some orthogonality problems between the optics and the CCD-shell. Now it has been fixed and all the stars are pinpoint from edge to edge.

An experimental starless image to show the actual nebula better.

Technical details:

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8

Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 6,5Hz

Image Scale, 3,5 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures H-alpha 10x1200s, binned 1x1O-III 3x1200s, binned 3x3

S-II 3x1200s, binned 2x2

Total exposure time ~5h

The Propeller Nebula as a 3D stereo pair images

2011-10-04T17:23:00.000+03:00

Parallel vision 3D

Cross vision 3D

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html

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

The Propeller Nebula as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

2011-10-04T17:12:00.003+03:00

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.

As many times before, I have turned the image of Propeller Nebula, DWB 111, to an experimental 3D-study.

Other 3D-formats:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072

Original 2D:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html

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

First light for the Autumn season 2011

2011-10-03T13:39:00.018+03:00

Finally!!!

Last night I managed to fix my "backup camera", some soldering and tweaking was needed but it worked out.

My first target was the "Propeller Nebula" in constellation Cygnus.

DWB 111, the Propeller Nebula

Ra 20h 17m 57s Dec -+44° 09′ 20″ in constellation Cygnus

HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Propeller Nebula (DWB 111, MRSL 497). This S-like formation is part of the much large area of emission nebulae in Cygnus. There are very little information around, the origin and distance of this structure is unknown. It seems to be mostly front of the associated nebula. I will make an experimental 3D-study out of this later.

A closeup from the image above.

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

Technical details:

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8

Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 6,5Hz

Image Scale, 3,5 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures H-alpha 15x1200s, binned 1x1

H-alpha 10x1200s, binned 1x1

O-III 14x1200s, binned 1x1

S-II 5x1200s, binned 2x2
Total exposure time ~10h

An experimental starless image shows the actual nebula better.

Ps.

It looks to me, that there is something going on at Two a clock position in this image. It could be a planetary nebula? There are nearly five hours of O-III in this image, with a fast f2.8 optics, so the emission of ionized Oxygen is not very strong. I couldn't find this feature from PN database, I must study this more later.

Here is a closeup of the area of interest

Just a stretched O-III & H-alpha channels animated

Not much, after about Five hours of exposures. There is nothing visible, about this shape, at S-II channel. Centeroid of the brightest spot is, Ra 20h 10m 39.7s Dec -+44° 12′ 01.9" and the diameter about 360 arc seconds.

UPDATE

Iiro Sairanen, from a Finnish astro group "Avaruus.fi", found this PN candidate from the Simbad database :

http://simbad.cfa.harvard.edu/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40114921&Name=PN%20PM%20%201-320&submit=submit

It's known under a name PN PM 1-320

Uh, this is too hard....

2011-10-01T23:38:00.004+03:00

No first light for the season, too many troubles, one more clear night wasted.

I have tried several times but either weather or technique has failed. First my observatory control laptop fried and it took a long time to re install everything.
Now my camera has fried too, just 30 minutes ago. I'll have to send it back to the China but there is a national holiday going on about two first weeks of the October...

I managed to get just a single 20min. exposure before something really bad happened to my cooled astronomical camera. There is a bad tilt in optical axes and other flaws too, I don't count this as a first light.

Single 20 min. exposure of the "Propeller Nebula" in constellation Cygnus.

A new set of wide fields vs closeups

2011-10-01T11:30:00.004+03:00

Weather looks kind of good now, I might have something new to publish in few days! I never have had a first light for the Autumn season so late...

Since the weather doesn't support shooting any new material, I have done more image pairs from same target in different focal lengths, usually a 200-300mm camera lens and my old Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope.

I have done earlier some scale studies from the same material, with Moon circle as a scale.
Now I have done just simple image pairs, showing both, a wide field and a closeup.

IC 410, in Auriga, a "cosmic fertilization"

Ra 05^h 22^m 39^sDec -33° 31′ 01″

HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Links to the original images, used in image pair, from top to bottom, 300mm vs ~2000mm

1. First wide field shot:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2008/03/ic-405-410-with-color.html
2. A closeup of IC 405

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/07/ic-410-cosmic-fertilization-reprocessed.html

IC405, the "Flaming Star Nebula"

An emission Nebula in constellation Auriga

Images are in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,

R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.

Links to the original images, used in image pair, from top to bottom, 300mm vs ~2000mm

1. First wide field shot:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2008/03/ic-405-410-with-color.html

2. A closeup of IC 405

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/12/ic405-410-reprocessed.html

A set of wide fields vs closeups

2011-09-28T17:05:00.006+03:00

Since the weather doesn't support shooting any new material, I have done more image pairs from same target.
I have shot many targets with least two different focal lengths, usually a 200-300mm camera lens and my old Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope. I have done earlier some scale studies as a zoom in series, with Moon circle as a scale.
Now I have done just simple image pairs, showing both, a wide field and a closeup from the same objects.

Sh2-142, the "Wizard Nebula"

Ra 22^h 47^m 0^s Dec +58° 06′ 00″, in constellation Cepheus

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Links to the original images, used in series, from top to bottom, 300mm vs ~2000mm

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/02/sh2-142-wizard-nebula-wide-field.html

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/09/sh2-142-wizard-nebula.html

NGC 7000, the "North America Nebula"

In constellation Cygnus

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Links to the original images, used in series, from top to bottom, 300mm vs ~2000mm

1. http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-first-ever-narrowband-color-image.html

2. http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ngc-7000-closeup-hst-palette-preview.html

IC443, the "Jellyfish Nebula"

In constellation Gemini

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Links to the original images, used in series, from top to bottom, 300mm vs ~2000mm

1. http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2008/03/ic-443-ngc-2175.html

2. http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/01/ic-443-reprocessed-closeup-and-wide.html

A collection of images from Australia ( Shot by a remote telescope)

2011-09-26T21:52:00.003+03:00

Southern wonders

Images from Northern Galactic Groups remote telescope, narrow and broad band. photos.

I had an access to a great instrument, 16 inch RCOS, in Australia for few months about an year ago, what a wonderful experience! I made this poster form presentation from that material. Southern sky is full of wonders and the site was really dark. I miss this "Stradivarius" of telescopes, my old Meade feels like a toy after this...

A labeled version

A collection of remote images can be found from my portfolio, with technical details:

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p268332952

R.I.P Dell laptop at age of ten years...

2011-09-26T08:39:00.003+03:00

This was a third time I tried to have my first light for the Autumn season 2011. This time my ten years old Dell laptop, used to run the observatory, died.
I have ordered a new tabletop computer with some extra com ports. There are no 9 pin communication ports in modern computers and many astro gears need one, like active optics unit, TCF-s focuser and Meade telescope control. I bet, the weather will clear up now, since I can't shoot...

Some redone images

I have turned some of my images to a panoramic format for one customer.

They turned to be kind of nice, so I'll publish some of them here.

(They looked wonderful as a large print on canvas)

More panoramic images in my portfolio:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1055055963

M8, the "Lagoon Nebula"

in constellation Sagittarius

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Original image and technical details:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/06/m8-lagoon-nebula.html

NGC7000, the "North America Nebula", a closeup

in constellation Cygnus

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Original image and technical details:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ngc-7000-closeup-hst-palette-preview.html

M104, the "Sombrero Galaxy"

in constellation Virgo

A broad band image in natural RGB-colors

Original image and technical details:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/05/final-version-of-m104-sombrero-galaxy.html

Sharpless 162, NGC 7635, the "Bubble Nebula"

Ra 23^h 20^m 48^sDec +61° 12′ 06″

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

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.