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Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sharpless 188. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sharpless 188. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, February 6, 2017

A new photo, Sharpless 188 (Sh2-188) in Cassiopeia



Kind of difficult target due to dim outer parts at left in my photo. I collected lights for this object couple of nights between. and 21. January 2017. This photo is also a good sample of my new imaging method VARES (Variable Resolution imaging). More info in technical details bellow.


Sharpless 188, a Planetary Nebula in Cassiopeia
Please, click for a large image

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




Sh2-188 in visual colors
Please, click for a large image

Image is in Natural colour palette from the emission of ionized elements, 
R=Hydrogen + Sulphur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + ~10% Hydrogen.



Sh2-188, H-alpha emission alone
Please, click for a large image



INFO

Sh2-188 (Sharpless2 188) a planetary nebula that is moving through the Inter Stellar Medium. The nebula is considered to be one of the most extreme examples of planetary nebula and ISM interaction. The bright parts of the filamentary rim is the shock front with a faint tail of material stretching away at opposite direction. (Source, http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Nebulae/SH188/Sh2-188.htm)


Technical details
NOTE!

A new immaging technique of mine was used for this photo. I call it VARES (Variable Resolution imaging). The data is collected by using different binning levels from 1x1 down to 6x6. High signal/noise elements, like brighter stars and more luminous parts of the nebula, are from less binned exposures. Low signal/noise elements, like very dim and featureless outer parts, are from more binned exposures, this time all the way down to bin 6x6. (Apogee Alta U16 has a 4096 x 4096 pixels CCD. At bin 6 x 6, the output image has still 682 x 682 pixels in it)

Total exposure time for H-alpha is  12h but if the effects of binning is calculated in, the signal is practically the same as from 140 hours of exposures, if all are binned 1x1!
With this method, I can have high resolution details and good S/N for dimmer, less detailed, parts of the nebula with minimal exposure time.

In near future, I will write a tutorial about the VARES method. It might take some time though.

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
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f10 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AOL

Astrodon filter, 5nm H-alpha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III
Astrodon filter, 3nm S-II

Exposure times
H-alpha, 6x 1200s, binned 1x1 = 2h
H-alpha, 21x 1200s, binned 2x2 = 7h
H-alpha, 9x 1200s, binned 6x6 = 3h
O-III, 3 x 1200s binned 6x6 = 1h 
S-II,  3 x 1200s binned 6x6 = 1h 
Total 14h

A single uncropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame as it comes from the camera







Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy new year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR
This post is about all of my astronomical photos from the year 2017

All my photos from the Spring and Autumn seasons of 2017 are taken with my imaging setup. Celestron Edge HD 1100 with 0.7 reducer at 10-micron mount. Apogee Alta U16 camera with Astrodon narrowband filters and an active optics unit, SXV AO LF, from Starlight Xpress.

SUPPORT
My humble thanks to the supporters, they made my work possible!

All companies are offering the first class products and service!

Year 2017 as an image poster
Please, click for a large image, 2400 x 3500 pixels, 6MB



Individual blog posts about images in the poster with the technical details. (Up left to lower right)

  1. A six panel mosaic of the Sharpless 119, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/12/sharpless-119-in-cygnus-project.html
  2. A detail of Sharpless 119, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/11/sharpless-119-in-cygnus-project.html
  3. WR 134, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/11/first-light-for-autumn-season-2017.html
  4. Sharpless 188, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/02/a-new-photo-sharpless-188-sh2-188-in.html
  5. IC 63, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/01/the-ghost-of-christmas-past-ic-63.html
  6. Sharpless 140, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/01/a-quick-one-sharpless-140-in-cepheus.html
  7. A detail of Sharpless 119, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/11/sharpless-119-sh2-119-in-cygnus.html
  8. A detail of Southern Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/11/an-other-detail-from-southern-cygnus.html
  9. A 12 panel mosaic of the Central Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2017/01/bright-nebulae-of-central-cygnus-eleven.html


Year 2017

Overall the year 2017 was very cloudy up here 65N. Due to very high latitude we have only six months of usable astronomical darkness. Light pollution is increasing year after year. My observatory locates at roof top of the building in very centre of the city of Oulu. I can shoot only narrowband data from my location due to intense light pollution. In pas years the old mercury and sodium lamps has been replaced with new LED-lamps. The light from old lamps, yellowish glow, has kind of narrow band width and my 3 nm filters easily filter it out. The new LED-based lightning system emits light at very wide spectrum and even photos taken with 3 nm filters shows some artefacts from light pollution. At the same time the total amount of light power has grown year after year. That means a very bright future to us children of night.



Wednesday, January 2, 2019

All my photos from the year 2018


A poster format collection of my photos from the year 2018. The Spring season 2018 was very cloudy, the Autumn season 2018 was kind of good and I was able to finalize couple of long imaging projects.

All my photos are taken with my current setup, the main instrument is an excellent imaging scope Celestron EDGE HD 1100 with a 0.7 focal reducer from Celestron. That's simply a best reducer I have ever used!  (Some optical testing can be seen HERE)
The mount from 10-micron is a top performer too. All images are taken with Apogee Alta U16 astronomical camera and Astrodon narrowband filter set, H-alpha 5nm, S-II 3nm and O-III 3nm.

I do purely narrow band imaging since my observatory is located at downtown of the City Oulu.
So far the light pollution has been massive in this industrial city with about 200 000 inhabitants but it used to be mostly from narrowband light sources, like old sodium and mercury lamps. Now the most of the light sources have been updated to LED-technology and it makes the light pollution much worse, since LEDs are emitting light at full spectrum. The broad band light from LEDs is practically impossible to filter out. I need to find a new location to my observatory during the Summer season 2019.

All my photos from the year 2018
Click for a full size image it's worth it (3000 x 5500 pixels)



Image details

  1. Dark nebulae of NGC 7000, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/dark-dust-in-cygnus.html
  2. Bow Tie of LBN 251, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/this-new-photos-shows-lbn-251-and.html
  3. Gian Cosmic Squid, Au4, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-giant-cosmic-squid-nebula-au4-new.html
  4. Clouds of Swan, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/clouds-of-swan.html
  5. The Cygnus Shell, W63, NASA APOD, a supernova remnant, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-very-rare-photo-cygnus-shell.html
  6. LBN 239 and 243, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/lbn-239-and-243.html
  7. Clouds of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/clouds-of-cygnus.html
  8. North America and the Pelican nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/deep-photo-of-north-america-pelican.html
  9. LBN 243, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/lbn-243.html
  10. The Sky on Fire, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-sky-on-fire-filaments-of-western.html
  11. Sharpless 224, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/12/extremely-dim-supernova-remnant-in.html
  12. A detail of IC 1396, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/01/ic1396-detail-image.html
  13. Sharpless 157, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/02/sharpless-157-in-cassiopeia-project.html
  14. Sharpless 188, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-new-photo-sharpless-188-sh2-188-in.html






Saturday, April 5, 2014

Two collections of planetary nebulae in scale


Since I don't have any equipment to continue my imaging work, I have organized my image archives. This time I made an image collection out of the planetary nebulae imaged by me. I'm trying to show here, how large they appear to be in the sky. There is an image of the Moon as a scale in the posters. The Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arc minutes, that's equal to 0,5 degrees. I have made a similar poster out of the supernova remnants, it can be seen HERE.


A collection of planetary nebulae as a poster
Click for a full resolution image




A collection of very large planetary nebulae as a poster
Click for a full resolution image. Please, read the NOTE under the image!


NOTE!

A friend of mine, Sakib Rasool, contacted me for this posters. There is an error in second one.
Sh2-223 is actually an emission nebula. You can read a paper about it here: http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2006/29/aa4881-06/aa4881-06.html



INFO

For more information about palnetary nebulae: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula
All images are emission line images shot with a Baader narrowband filter set, cooled astronomical camera QHY and Meade LX200 GPS.

Links to my original photos with technical details

Poster 1


Poster 2




Saturday, November 27, 2010

Sh2-188, a Planetary Nebula





Sharpless object 188
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.

Sh2-188, PNG128.0-4.1, in constellation Cassiopeia. An asymmetrical planetary nebula was first photographed in 1965, it thought to be a Supernova remnant due its crescent like shape, now it's known to be  a Planetary Nebula.  Distance from Oulu, Finland, is ~850 light years. Apparent diameter is ~5 arcmin.

There is not too many images of this Planetary Nebula around. I made a HST-palette composition out of ionized elements, H-a, O-III and S-II, I haven't never seen this one presented like that!
I used a special technique of mine to dig out all the information from the raw data, this is a extremely dim target. I might shoot more lights for this in future.


Sh2-188 in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the 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 CCDStack.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 3Hz
Image Scale, 0,75 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures H-alpha 7x1200s, binned 1x1 + 6x1200s, binned 3x3
O-III 3x1200s, binned 3x3
S-II 3x1200s, binned 3x3

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Sh2-188, project finalized




New lights added. 12x600s Luminance data with an IDAS LP filter.
The resulting image shows more stars due the broadband component. L + H-a + O-III + S-II are composed to a Luminance channel.



Sharpless object 188
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.

Sh2-188, PNG128.0-4.1, in constellation Cassiopeia. An asymmetrical planetary nebula was first photographed in 1965, it thought to be a Supernova remnant due its crescent like shape, now it's known to be a Planetary Nebula. Distance from Oulu, Finland, is ~850 light years. Apparent diameter is ~5 arcmin.


There is not too many images of this Planetary Nebula around. I made a HST-palette composition out of ionized elements, H-a, O-III and S-II, I haven't never seen this one presented like that!
I used a special technique of mine to dig out all the information, this is a extremely dim target.



Sh2-188 in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the 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 CCDStack.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 3Hz
Image Scale, 0,75 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures 
Luminance 12x600s, binned 2x2
H-alpha 7x1200s, binned 1x1 
H-alpha 6x1200s, binned 3x3
O-III 3x1200s, binned 3x3
S-II 3x1200s, binned 3x3

Monday, September 12, 2011

Many ways to die




A collection of passed away stars, both, planetary nebulae and supernova remnants.
Note. Images in this poster are not in same scale.

UPDATE
"Jake" from Finnish astronomical group, http://foorumi.avaruus.fi/ , pointed out, that Sh2-223 (Sharpless 223) is now  uncatalogued as a supernova remnant, it's just a HII region.
"G166.2+2.5 (=OA 184) (aka Sh2-223) was removed from the 2006 April version of the catalogue, as it was identified as an HII region by Foster et al. (2006)."
I left the image as it is, since there is a real SNR in the image, Sh2-224.

All images in this collection can be found from my portfolio, with technical details:



Labeled
There are some very rarely imaged objects in the poster, like Jones1, Jones-Emberson1, Medusa Nebula, Sh2-188, Sh2-221, Sh2-216, Simeis 147 and supernova remnant pair Sh2-223, 224.
PL = planetary Nebula, SNR = supernova remnant