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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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Saturday, November 29, 2014

Astro anarchy gets published, an art gallery just opened!



For this holiday season I got invited to participate to a temporary art exhibition "Joulun Tähdet" (Stars of Christmas" in my home town Oulu.

We now have a small gallery opened at the very center of the city for about one month. 
Beside my astrophotos, there are oil paintings from Matti mikkola and some older nineteenth huderts century paintings from the collections of Kuru Koru. There are also some special collectables and antique for sale from kuru Koru's collections too.

You can follow us on Facebook:

Our address in Oulu, Pakkahuoneenkatu 10, "Vanhan Apteekin talo", at street level.
We are open daily from 12.00 to 18.00 until christmas.

You Are very welcome!



Some pictures from the gallery







Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Sharpless 132, Sh2-132, in visual spectrum



I published the original photo of  Sharpless 132 at November 11 but only in mapped colors. In this version, the narrowband channels are combined so, that the resulting image is as close as possible to a visual spectrum of human eye. Red is the dominating color since the ionized hydrogen, H-alpha, is the strongest emission line and it's emitting deep red light. Blue hues are coming from the emission of an ionized oxygen, O-III. 

A furious cosmic horse gets blinded by a divine blue light
Sharpless 132 (Sh2-132) in Cepheus

Image is in visual colors, if human eye could be able to see colors in extremely low light, most emission nebulae appears in deep red color due to dominance of an ionized hydrogen, H-alpha. Blue color is coming from the emission of an ionized oxygen, O-III.

An experimental starless version

When all the stars are removed, the actual nebula stands out much better.


A closeup composition




INFO

Sharpless 132 is a very faint emission nebula, it locates at the border of Cepheus and Lacerta. Distance is about 10.000 lightyears. My photo covers about one square degree of the sky (63x63"). The blue color in the image is from the emission of an ionized Oxygen (O-III). "The divine blue light" at horses face seems to be an Oxygen jet of some kind, or it's just a tens of light years long oddly shaped area of glowing gas. The shape can be seen in H-alpha channel too. (Ionized Hydrogen)


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
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

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5nm H-alpha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III

Exposure times
H-alpha, 9 x 1200s = 3h


O-III, 3 x 1200s = 1h
S-II, 3x1200s = 1h


A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame







Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Soul Nebula, IC 1848, as a two frame mosaic



This image is originally shot this Autumn between 27 and 29.10. I haven't publish it before, since I have had so much material to share. The new imaging system gives me a nice field of view, with a high resolution. 
63x63 arc minutes at a scale of 0,95 arc seconds/pixel. That's over a square degree of sky.

IC 1848, the Soul Nebula
Ra 02h 51m 36.24s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"  Click for a large image!

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen. The photo is stitched together from two separate shots.

An experimental starless view

Details of the actual nebula stands out better in this starless view.

Info

Soul Nebula, (Sh2-199, LBN 667) is an emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. IC 1848 is a cluster inside Soul Nebula. Distance is about 7.500 light years. This complex is a Eastern neighbor of IC 1805, the "Heart Nebula" and they are often mentioned together as Heart and Soul.

A wider field photo

In this wide field image of mine, the Soul Nebula is shown with its neighbor, the Heart nebula. Image is shot with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens, Baader narrowband filters and the QHY9 cooled astronomical camera. My older photos of the Soul nebula can be seen HERE

Nebula in visual spectrum

Red is a dominant color since the strongest emission line of hydrogen, H-alpha, emits red light. Bluish hues are from ionized oxygen, O-III

Hydrogen alpha image

Nebula in H-alpha light alone.


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
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

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5 nm H-alpha

Exposure times
H-alpha, 24 x 1200s = 8h (4h/panel)
O-III, 6x1200 (1h/panel), binned 4x4
S-II, 6x1200 (1h/panel), binned 4x4
Total 12h





Saturday, November 15, 2014

APOD by NASA, Astro Anarchy gets published



Astronomy Picture of the Day

My shot of the Tulip Nebula, Sh2-101, was selected as an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by NASA. You can see the NASA page here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141115.html

The Tulip Nebula
In constellation Cygnus 


Originla 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 seventh APOD, older ones can be seen here:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131214.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110218.html




Thursday, November 13, 2014

DWB-111, the Propeller nebula



The data for this object is shot at 31.10 last month but I got it processed just now.
The data for the emission of ionized Oxygen and Sulfur (O-III and S-II) is borrowed from my wide field shot of the area back from the first light image of Autumn 2011.


DWB-111, the Propeller Nebula
In constellation Cygnus, click for a large images

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen.

An experimental starless view

The actual nebula stands out nicely in this experimental starless version of my photo.

Info

Propeller Nebula (DWB 111, MRSL 497). This S-like formation is part of the much large area of emission nebula in constellation Cygnus. There are very little information about the origin and distance of this structure is unknown.

Image in visual colors

Emission line channels are combined to match to a visual spectrum.

A wide field image of the nebula

A wide field image from the Autumn 2011. More info and image in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html
Also O-III and S-II channels are borrowed from this photo.

Orientation in Cygnus

The area of new photo is marked as a white rectangle.

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
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

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5 nm H-alpha

Exposure times
H-alpha, 12 x 1200s = 4h
O-III & S-II from an older wide field photo of mine.



A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

A furious cosmic horse gets blinded by a divine blue light



My latest photo, Sh2-132. I rarely give a name to my photos, other than the official catalog number or well known nickname, this time I couldn't resist to give a name of my own.

A furious cosmic horse gets blinded by a divine blue light
Sharpless 132 (Sh2-132) in Cepheus

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen. If you like to have a photographic print, click HERE

A closeup composition

If you like to have a photographic print, click HERE

Why a furious horse?

A marble horse sculpture from Piazza Navona, Rome Italy, it's placed in the image to show the horse figure.

INFO

Sharpless 132 is a very faint emission nebula, it locates at the border of Cepheus and Lacerta. Distance is about 10.000 lightyears. My photo covers about one square degree of the sky (63x63"). The blue color in the image is from the emission of an ionized Oxygen (O-III). "The divine blue light" at horses face seems to be an Oxygen jet of some kind, or it's just a tens of light years long oddly shaped area of glowing gas. The shape can be seen in H-alpha channel too. (Ionized Hydrogen)

The actual nebula is much large, as can be seen in my older wide field photo of the area.

Area of interest is marked at my older wide field image of the Sh2-132. The original image from the Winter 2011, with technical details, can be found from HERE

A starless view

The actual nebula stands out nicely in this experimental starless version of my photo.

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
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

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5nm H-alpha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III

Exposure times
H-alpha, 9 x 1200s = 3h
O-III, 3 x 1200s = 1h
S-II, 3x1200s = 1h

A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame






Friday, November 7, 2014

Astro Anarchy gets published



I shot my astronomical photos about five years from the rooftop of the Swedish Private School here in Oulu, Finland. Last year I had to find another location since they started to build an expansion for the school at the rooftop. I was so glad, when Anders Wentin from the school contacted me and ask, if I'm able to deliver an artwork from some of my photos to the School.  Yesterday, at 6. 11. 2014, the artwork was revealed.

The photo is printed on dibond aluminium sheets and covered with a hard and glossy laminate. The size is 3600 x 1600mm (142 x 63 inch). There are three panels used for the final artwork. Seams are so thin, that's not possible to see them easily.

The Path of Swans 
A large photo print in Swedish Private School, Oulu

One of the guests as a scale. The photo is very sharp in that scale since it's a mosaic image of about 18 panels from the high resolution astronomical camera. The photo is taken from the rooftop of the same building, where is now for display.




The photo
Click for a large image, 2400 x 1100 pixels and 3,5MB

Original print size was around 22000 x 10000 pixels. This is actually a smaller area from one of my large mosaic images. The original blog post about the image, with technical details, can be found HERE.

My previous large print

Artwork above is not a largest print made from my photos. Much larger one was published at spring 2014. More ifo about this gigantic, over 10 x 3 m, print can be seen in this blog post:  http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2014/04/astro-anarchy-get-published.html

The Cirrus of Cygnus
A very large photographic print on aluminium, 3x10m

The photo is printed on aluminium and it has a glossy finishing. This is one of the largest art prints I have ever seen. The size of the photographic prin is over 3 x 10 meters (= 10 x 33 feet) 


Even in that size, the image is very sharp, since the original image is in very high resolution due to mosaic technique used. An info board for the artwork can be seen next to the door at middle right.

This photo is actually a upper part from the very large cygnus mosaic. The new print is the lower part of the mosaic. Here is the original photo of the whole area.

More inf about this photo: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/09/a-collection-of-images-from-large.html



Tuesday, November 4, 2014

NGC 281, the Siamese fighting fish



At 31. October I shot the raw frames for the NGC 281. Yesterday I combined them as a final color photo. When the photo was ready, I didn't saw the usual "Pac Man" figure but a Siamese fighting fish! 

NGC 281

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen.


Image in visual colors

Image in visual spectrum composed from the emission of ionized elements.


It does look like a Siamese fighting fish!

Source for the fighting fish image: www.petattack.com/fight-like-fighting-fish/

INFO

NGC 281 is an H II region in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It includes the open cluster IC 1590 and several Bok globules (dark doo-dads at center of the Blue area). NGC 281 is also known as the Pac-Man Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character from early 80's. NGC 281 spans over 80 light years at its estimated distance of 9500 light years.

A study about the structure

All pillar like formations are pointing to a source of ionization, the open cluster NGC 281. There are some more dense areas in a gas, able to resist the radiation pressure from young star cluster. Those dense areas, at a tip of the each pillar, are also potential places for the formations of the new stars. Note. There are some very dim outer formations in this nebula, I haven't noticed them before. Like the one pillar like at the eleven o'clock position. 

A starless view

An experimental starless view shows better the actual structure of the nebula.


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
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

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5nm H-alpha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III

Exposure times
H-alpha, 9 x 1200s = 3h
O-III, 3 x 1200s = 1h
S-II, 3x1200s = 1h


A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame



A sample image of Tonemapped channels


I'm using a special processing technique of mine for a weak signal, the Tone Mapping v2
Starless emission channels are much easier to process for color channels since I don't need to worry about bloating stars etc. In HST-palette, the idea is to have all the channels in equal weight in the final color image. To do that, tens of times more exposure time is needed for a weaker channels, usually O-III or S-II. Typically it's not possible in any reasonable time frame and weaker channels needs to be stretched very strongly. Doe to that, lots of artifacts are generated, like purple stars. With my technique a perfect color balance is easily done. 





Sunday, November 2, 2014

Sharpless 115 and a planetary nebula Abell 71



I have always wanted to shoot this complex nebula and planetary in Cygnus. The object is kind of dim and has lots of details. Actually it's so complex, that I had a hard time trying to figure out how to make a nice composition out of it.


Sharpless 115, Sh2-115 and Abell 71
A square of birth and death
Click for a large image

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen.The bright spot at lower left is the Abell 71, PLN 85+4.1


Closeups from the image above



Abell 71, PLN 85+4.1



Image in visual colors

Image in visual spectrum composed from emission line channels, H-a, O-III and S-II


A starless version

Sometimes I'm publishing experimental starless versions of my photos. The actual nebula stands out nicely by that way.

INFO
Source: NASA APOD

 Sharpless 115 stands just north and west of Deneb, the alpha star of Cygnus the Swan in planet Earth's skies. Noted in the 1959 catalog by astronomer Stewart Sharpless (as Sh2-115) the faint but lovely emission nebula lies along the edge of one of the outer Milky Way's giant molecular clouds, about 7,500 light-years away. Shining with the light of ionized atoms of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen in this Hubble palette color composite image, the nebular glow is powered by hot stars in star cluster Berkeley 90. The cluster stars are likely only 100 million years old or so and are still embedded in Sharpless 115. But the stars' strong winds and radiation have cleared away much of their dusty, natal cloud. At the emission nebula's estimated distance, this cosmic close-up spans just under 100 light-years.

Orientation

Sharpless 115 and the Abell 71 can be seen in this older wide field image of the Cygnus nebula complex.
More info about this image 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 50% 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

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5nm H-alpha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III

Exposure times
H-alpha, 18 x 1200s = 6h
O-III, 6 x 1200s = 2h
S-II, 3x1200s = 1h


A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame