Monday, December 9, 2024
Wizard Nebula, NGC 7380
My new setup has a long focal length optics, Celestron EDGE 14", after years of shooting the wider field astronomical photos, it's very nice to dig in to the details of those cosmic wonders.
My new photo shows the Wizard nebula in Cepheus, I have shot this target many times with a various optical configurations. The combination of 14" telescope and large 12 micron pixels of my "new" second hand camera, Apogee Alta U9000M, delivers an optimal resolution to my seeing conditions (0.91 arcsecond/pixel). This makes possible to go very deep in relatively short cumulative exposure time, as can be seen in this photo. A dim background nebulosity stand out nicely after about six hours of H-alpha exposures.
WIZARD OF CEPHEUS
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
The Wizard, as I see it
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
INFO
NGC 7380, the Wizard Nebula, locates in constellation Cepheus at distance of about 8500 light years from us. The Nebula surrounds an open star cluster NGC 7380. Stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional medieval sorcerer. The active star forming region spans about 100 light years, making it appear larger than the angular extent of the Moon. The Wizard Nebula can be located with a small telescope toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus).
WIZARD IN VISUAL COLORS
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
Visual color version 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.
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue, this combination is very close to a natural color palette.
A starless version
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
Sometimes I'm publishing an experimental starless versions of my photos. It's easier to see the structure of the nebula when stars are not there. This is also a very useful technique, when hunting down some dim objects, like an old and diffused planetary nebula in a very dense starfield.
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 12h
H-alpha, 18 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 6 h
O-III,9x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 3h
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 3h
A single, full scale, 20 min H-alpha exposure, Bin 1x1
Click for a full size image.
Click for a full size image.
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Beauty and the Beast, Tulip Nebula and a Black Hole
I started to collect exposures for this photo back in 2014, now I have shot new high resolution material for this amazing target with my new imaging platform.
I see several layers in my photos and that makes them to tell a story beyond any imagination.
First
A visual layer, that's naturally very important to me as a visual artist, revealing the hidden cosmic beauty and poetry is my passion.
Second
The physical layer, how emission of the nebulae works, radiation pressure, nuclear fusion of the star, gravitational phenomes, etc... all that is extremely beautiful in its own class.
Third
An existential layer, where we are coming and where we are going in a cosmic scale.
Practically all of the heavier elements in our bodies are coming from supernova explosion's, iron in our blood, oxygen, carbon, etc... We are children of the stars
When our Sun will die after few billion years and turn to a planetary nebula, it'll vaporize the Earth and our remains on it and blows them to the outer space. After aeons our remains are going to end up to a building blocks for a new generation of stars.
We all have been stars and one day we going to be stars again.
This is the beauty and poetry I'm after my photos
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Tulip Nebula and a Black Hole
Click the photo to see a high resolution photo, it's worth it
A two frame mosaic from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
One frame
Black Hole Cygnus X-1
Click the photo to see a high resolution photo, it's worth it
Black Hole, Cygnus X-1, is marked in the photo
INFO
The complex and beautiful Tulip Nebula, Sharpless 101, blossoms about 8,000 light-years away toward the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula.
Also in the featured field of view is the black hole Cygnus X-1, which is also a microquasar because it is one of strongest X-ray sources in planet Earth's sky. The powerful jets from the black hole can't be seen in this photo since they glow light in X-ray wave length. Faint bluish curved shock front, visible at up center, is coursed by the X-ray jet when it hits to a interstellar gas and dust.
Why we can see the black hole in this image as a star like object?
We can't see the actual black hole but we can see how the material is twirling in the black hole. The speed become so high that the matter starts to turn to an energy emitting light trough the whole spectrum up to X-ray and gamma radiation.
Photo in Visual Colors
Click the photo to see a high resolution photo, it's worth it
A two frame mosaic from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue
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 20h
H-alpha, 15 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 10 h
O-III, 45x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 5 h
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 5h
A single, full scale, 20 min H-alpha exposure, Bin 1x1
Click for a full scale image.
Click for a full scale image.
A single, full scale, 20 min O-III exposure, Bin 1x1
Click for a full scale image.
Click for a full scale image.
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Astro Anarchy get published
After about three years without shooting new material from the night sky I'm finally back in business.
I had some health issues and after three operations I'm starting to be good as new again. I have also built a new imaging system, it took about two years to get it up and running.
I was really amazed about the amount of publicity my work got after I publish my first photos from the new setup. Here are some of the publication, couple of them are in finish only, sorry.
My TV-interview in a live talk show,
Arto Nyberg (Finish)
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:
AN INTERVIEW BY RADIO KALEVA
"Olemme kaikki supernovien lapsia"
"Olemme kaikki supernovien lapsia"
Haastattelun voi kuunnella täältä sivun lopusta: (Finish)
https://www.kaleva.fi/olemme-kaikki-supernovien-lapsia-oululainen-tahtik/11396012
https://www.kaleva.fi/olemme-kaikki-supernovien-lapsia-oululainen-tahtik/11396012
.jpg)
Kuva: Maiju Pohjanheimo
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Methuselah Nebula, MWP1, project finalized
Planetary Nebulae are like candy of the cosmos, small and colorful treats to the eye.
MWP1 is a Planetary Nebula in constellation Cygnus, the Swan, it's rarely imaged and now I know why.
This is a unusually old, unusually shaped and unusually large planetary nebula, it also was one of the most difficult targets I have captured so far.
When I saw the first 20 min. exposure, it looked like there is plenty of nothing in the frame, this is dim to an extreme. I have added full size 20 min sub frames of H-alpha and O-III at the end of this blog post so you can see yourself how much data there is.
MWP1, Methuselah Nebula
Click for a full size image
Click for a full size image
Photo is in natural color palette from the light emitted by an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha)
and an ionized oxygen (O-III)
MWP1 in O-III light only
Click for a full size image
The structure of MWP1 in light of an ionized oxygen (O-III)
INFO
This is one of the largest planetary nebulae known, it spans about 15 light-years. Based on its expansion rate the nebula has an age of 150 thousand years, a cosmic blink of an eye in the 10 billion year life of a sun-like star. But planetary nebulae represent a very brief final phase in stellar evolution, as the nebula's central star shrugs off its outer layers to become a hot white dwarf. In fact, planetary nebulae ordinarily only last for 10 to 20 thousand years.
The central star of the nebula is on of the hottest stars known. It's so hot that it's producing large amounts of X-rays
Source NASA APOD
Scale in the Sky
The white circle show the apparent size of the Moon in the same scale, this is a large object as a Planetary nebula. Moon has a angular dimension of 30 arcminutes, that's 0.5 degrees.
Animation
Technical details
Processing workflow
Image acquisition, MaximDL
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 and 3nm O-III
Total exposure time 24h
H-alpha, 21 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 8 h
O-III, 48x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 16h
A single, full size, 20 min H-alpha and O-III exposure
Click for a full scale image.
Both images below are jpg photos of a single full size, 20 min. FIT-format 16 bit image.
Photos are calibrated with darks and bias corrected flats and are heavily stretched to show even a hint of the actual nebula.
H-alpha
O-III
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