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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, September 23, 2015

Messier 31, M31, the Great Galaxy of Andromeda


Another collaboration image, this time with David Lane. He is also a master of landscape astrophotographing, please, have a look at his homepage: http://www.davelaneastrophotography.com/ 

Image acquisition is made by David Lane. He sent a massive amount of data to me to process and here is the first result, the Great Galaxy of Andromeda with 37 hours of exposure time.


Messier 31, M31, the Galaxy of Andromeda 
Click for a large image

A deep H-alpha boosted LRGB exposure of the Galaxy of Andromeda


Large resolution detail from the image above
Click for a large image

Dust lanes of Andromeda


A starless view
Click for a large image

This photo shows the M31 as it was seen just outside of our home galaxy, the Milky way. All the stars in the first photo are located in Our galaxy at maximum distance of few tens of thousands light years. M31 lies at distance of about 2.5 million light years. There is 2.5 million light years of nothing between us and Messier 31. Dim dots at the starless image are more distant galaxies and some hundred of globular cluster associated to M31 galaxy .


A vertical composition of M31

A poster format view to the M31


INFO

The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light years from Earth. It is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way.

The Milky Way and Andromeda are expected to collide in 3.75 billion years, eventually merging to form a giant elliptical galaxy or perhaps a large disk galaxy.

At 3.4, the apparent magnitude of the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the brightest of any of the Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. It has an apparent diameter of six times as wide as the full Moon


An experimental test

This funny looking image is just stretched vertically to try to show the actual round shape of the galaxy.
It looks like a barred spiral to me.


Technical details

Data acquisition, David Lane
Image processing, J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow

Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 33% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
 William Optics GT81

Camera
SBIG STL-1100 3 CCD

Exposure times
Luminance, 18h
H-alpha, 1h
Red = ~6h
Green = ~6h
Blue = ~6h
Total 37h





Thursday, September 17, 2015

APOD by NASA, Astro Anarchy gets published




Astronomy Picture of the Day

My shot of the Pickering's Triangle in Veil Nebula was selected today as an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by NASA. You can see the NASA page here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150917.html

Pickering's Triangle
Be sure to click for a large image!


INFO

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

You can buy a real, museum quality, photographic print from HERE

This is my eighth APOD, older ones can be seen here:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141115.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131214.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110218.html





Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Pickering's Triangle, my first light for the Autumn season 2015



This is my opening photo for the Autumn season 2015. I started this imaging project a year ago, at Autumn 2014. Back then I shot 12h of the light form an ionized oxygen, O-III. This is a two frame mosaic of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant. This Autumn I shot 5h of light from an ionized hydrogen, H-alpha. I was able to make a Hubble palette image by using the S-II from my older wide field photo of the Veil Nebula.


Pickering's Triangle
Be sure to click for a large image!

Part of the two frame mosaic of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant, the Pickering's Triangle.
Colors are from the ionized elements, Hydrogen, Sulfur and Oxygen. 
S-II = Red, H-alpha = Green and O-III = Blue. 

Same area in light of an ionized oxygen only
(A content of this O-III image can be seen as a blueish color at image above.)


Pickering's Triangle in light of an ionized oxygen, O-III, alone.


A zoom out series to the whole two frame mosaic

A closeup
Click for a large image



A less zoomed version
Click for a large image



The whole two frame mosaic
Click for a large image

A two frame mosaic of the Pickering's Triangle


A wide field photo of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant

The Pickering's Triangle can be see at one o'clock position.
My blog post about the wide field shot can be seen HERE.


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

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f7 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 x2 and SXV-AOL

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

Exposure times
H-alpha, 15 x 1200s = 5h
O-III, 36 x 1200s binned = 12h (Autumn 2014)
S-II,  from my older wide field photo of the Veil Nebula = 3h 
Total 20h





Tuesday, September 8, 2015

IC 4603, at the core of the colorful Scorpion


This is a third image produced as a collaboration with me and Eric Recurt. The data is shot from his observatory at Tenerife. The Observatory locates at 2400 m altitude and at 28 degrees North. The site has excellent seeing conditions, 0.8 " on average and can be below 0.3 "  


IC 4603, the core region of the Rho Ophiuchi complex in the constellation Scorpion 
Click for a full size image

This is a broadband LRGB natural color image of the IC 4603 from a remote observatory in Tenerife.


Full scale closeups
Click for a full size image






Technical details

Processing workflow

Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 33% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
 340mm F3.3 astrograph

Mount
ASA DDM 85

Cameras and filters
FLI PL 16803



Exposure times
Luminance, 10 x 300s 
Red = 10 x 180s
Green = 9 x 180s
Blue = 8 x 180s
Total 2h 11min