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Saturday, January 4, 2025

New photo of NGC 281


This photo is made by combining 10 h of new H-alpha exposures to a 10 h of exposures with my older long focal length telescope from 2015. Beside that, there are 5 hours of data taken with Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens back in 2020. Very dim background mist comes mainly from camera lens data.
With 3 h S-II and O-III exposures the total exposure time was 31 hours.

Deep view to the NGC 281
Click for a full size, 2700x2500 pixels

A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, 
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue



A Portion of the Full Resolution Photo

I haven't noticed before that there is a triple star system at the star cluster IC 1590
The seeing wasn't very good so I couldn't quite split the two of the stars but it can be seen, that there are two stars very close to each other visually.



NGC 281 in visual palette
Click for a full size, 2700x2500 pixels

Visual color version of Sh2-115 glows mostly in red from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue, this combination is very close to a natural color palette.


SIAMESE FIGHTING FISH NEBULA

When I was processing the data for this photo I had a feeling that I have seen this shape and color combination before, soon it hit me, it was a picture of Siamese Fighting Fish 

INFO

NGC 281 is a busy workshop of star formation. Prominent features include a small open cluster of stars, a diffuse red-glowing emission nebula, large lanes of obscuring gas and dust, and dense knots of dust and gas in which stars may still be forming. The open cluster of stars IC 1590 visible around the center has formed only in the last few million years. The brightest member of this cluster is actually a multiple-star system shining light that helps ionize the nebula's gas, causing the red glow visible throughout. The lanes of dust visible below the center are likely homes of future star formation. Particularly striking in the above photograph are the dark Bok globules visible against the bright nebula. Stars are surely forming there right now. The entire NGC 281 system lies about 10 thousand light years distant. (Source, NASA APOD)

With my new imaging system I can get deeper with a good resolution, than my old long focal length toolset was able to. The secondary mirror focusing system takes care of focusing and temperature compensation, I can keep the heavy main mirror locked down all the time.  Heavy mirror has a tendency to move a bit when the scope moves and that can mess up the collimation. 
The current system keeps collimation perfect all the time.

An other great accessory is the Active Optics Unit from Starlight Xpress. It's as easy to use as any OAG, the good update speed to a 11 mag star is around 8Hz. The AO-unit removes all the minor tracking errors very fast. The Mesu Mount Mark II has a periodic error under four arcseconds and that's a very small error, even so, AO unit gives a better image quality since the corrections are made by moving a light weight piece of glass, the heavy load of the scope and accessories doesn't need to move for corrections.

Structure study of the NGC 281

Pillar like formations in the gas cloud are forming when the radiation pressure (Solar Wind) from the open cluster IC 1590 blows the gas and dust away and  coursing some parts of the gas collapse.Due to that, they all are pointing to the source of the solar wind, open cluster IC 1590, as I have shown in the image above.


NGC 281 in a large context
Please, click for a large image

NGC 281 can be seen in this wide field mosaic image of the constellation Cassiopeia at bottom center.
This photo is also a small part of a massive mosaic image of the Northern Milky Way Galaxy.


Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaximDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics, 
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer

Mount, 
MesuMount Mark II

Cameras, 
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz

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

Total exposure time 31h
H-alpha, 30 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 10 h (14" Celestron EDGE)
H-alpha, 30 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 10 h (11" Celestron EDGE, shot at 2015)
H-alpha, 15 x 1200 x, binned 1x1 = 5h (Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8, shot at 2020)
O-III,9x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 3h (11" Celestron EDGE, shot at 2015)
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 3h (11" Celestron EDGE, shot at 2015)


A single calibrated 20 min exposure of H-alpha, Bin 1x1
 Click for a full size image.



www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 2:34 PM 0 comments
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Tuesday, December 31, 2024

My photo was selected as a cover picture of the Official Year Calendar of Vatican Observatory 2025

The Vatican observatory selected my photo of Sharpless 157 as a cover picture of an Official Calendar of the Vatican Observatory.
I have had my photos in this yearly published calendar about ten times and this is a second time my photo was selected as a cover, first time was back in 2019, the cover picture can be seen here: https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/12/astro-anarchy-gets-published-cover.html


Sharpless 157, the Cover Picture of the Vatican Observatory Calendar


Here is a link to blog post about this photo there are all the technical details and more info about this target: https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/02/sharpless-157-in-cassiopeia-project.html


You can buy the Vatican Observatory Calendar from here:

https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/product/2025-vatican-observatory-calendar/







 

www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 3:31 PM 0 comments

All of my photos from the Year 2024

As usually, I'm publishing a poster format presentation of my photos at end of the year. This time all of the material is shot at Autumn Season 2024 since I got my new imaging platform up and running by then.

I haven't been able to produce any new material for almost three years due to some health problems. After hard times I'm back and well again. 

Building a new imaging system fully functional took couple of years. It's working now very well, only some small tweaking has to be done next year, I'll do it during the mandatory Summer pause of six months.


All of my photos from the Year 2024
Click for a full size image


A large, 8000x7000 pixel image


Photo Details
From top left to bottom right

  1. MWP1, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/10/methuselah-nebula-mwp1-project-finalized.html
  2. WR 134, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/10/wr-134-rising-phoenix.html
  3. NGC 7380, the Wizard Nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/12/wizard-nebula-ngc-7380.html
  4. Sharpless 132, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/12/sharpless-132-furious-cosmic-horse-gets.html
  5. Pelican Nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/12/sharpless-132-furious-cosmic-horse-gets.html
  6. Sharpless 112, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/12/pansy-of-swan-sharpless-112.html
  7. Tulip nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/11/balck-hole-cygnus-x-1-and-tulip-nebula.html
  8. Sharpless 115, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/12/new-photo-sharpless-115-in-cygnus.html



The new imaging Platform

Detailed information about the new toolset here:

The Cover picture of the Official Year Calendar of Vatican Observatory

My photo of  Sharpless 157 was selected as a cover picture of the Vatican Observatory Calendar



My Work in the Media, some highlights

Vatican 


My TV-interview in a live talk show, 

Arto Nyberg (Finnish)
You can see the show here: https://areena.yle.fi/1-70235645






PETA PIXEL
World's leading independent photography, videography, and imaging technology publication


"This Astrophotographer Captures the Universe Unlike Anyone Else"
JEREMY GRAY

You can read the article here: 





MY MODERN MET
5 million visitors coming to our site each month, looking for articles on art, design, photography, architecture, science, technology, environmental issues, and more.

"Remarkable Astrophotography Captures the Sublime Beauty of Universe"
Jessica Stewart on November 11, 2024

You can read the article here: 
https://mymodernmet.com/jp-metsavainio-astrophotography/






AN INTERVIEW BY RADIO KALEVA

"Olemme kaikki su­per­no­vien lapsia" 

Haastattelun voi kuunnella täältä sivun lopusta: (Finnish)
https://www.kaleva.fi/olemme-kaikki-supernovien-lapsia-oululainen-tahtik/11396012







www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 12:08 PM 0 comments

Monday, December 23, 2024

Sharpless 132, A closeup

I published my latest photo out of Sh-2132 emission nebula just few days ago.
Now I'm publishing a "Spinoff" image out of it. Since the photo was a very high resolution one, I'm able to cut out a new composition out of it. The cut out has a resolution of 4000x4400 pixels.


Sharpless 132, Up Close and Personal
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2200 pixels

A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, 
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue


New Processing For a Christmas 
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2200 pixels



'
Technical details

All the technical details can be found from the original post here:
 https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/12/sharpless-132-furious-cosmic-horse-gets.html




www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 1:43 PM 0 comments
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