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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.

Have a visit in my portfolio

Monday, April 27, 2015

A video out of my astronomical photos



I made a video clip out of  my astronomical nature photographs, the movie is in full HD-format.

Please, click start and use a gear symbol at the bottom right of the video window menu, select 1080p HD quality. Then select the full screen mode by using the rightmost symbol.

BELLA NOTTE
A 14 minute movie by J-P Metsavainio


Click to start and stop the movie

Some links to my work as an astrophotographer















Saturday, April 18, 2015

B&W space, Winter 2014-15



As astronomical cameras are usually cooled grayscale CCD-cameras, color images are made by shooting each color channel through a filter. For broad band RGB images usually four filters are used Luminance and RGB-filters. Due to massive light pollution in my location, I'm specialized to a narrowband imaging, it's very effective method to shoot emission nebulae, since they are emitting light in well known wavelengths. All other light can be then filtered out and let just the right wavelength pass through. I'm using the most common combination of emission lines, a light from ionized hydrogen (H-alpha), sulfur (S-II) and oxygen (O-III).

The strongest emission line is usually the H-alpha, it has most of the details also. I'm publishing here a collection of H-alpha images from the Winter season 2014-15. Sometimes B&W images can be very beautiful.

A collection of selected B&W H-alpha nebulae, Winter 2014-15
click for a large image

Pelican Nebula

Pelican Nebula mosaic, a blog post HERE


Pickering's Triangle in O-III light only

Pickering's Triangle in O-III light only, a blog post HERE


NGC 281

NGC 281, a blog post HERE


Sharpless 132

Sharpless 132, Sh2-132, a blog post HERE


Tulip Nebula

The Tulip Nebula, Sh2-101, a blog post HERE  NASA APOD


IC 405

IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula, a blog post HERE


IC 410

IC 410, a blog post HERE


IC 1805

IC 1805, The Heart Nebula,  a blog post HERE


Melotte 15

Melotte 15 inside IC 1805,  a blog post HERE


NGC 1795


NGC 1795, a blog post HERE


NGC 2175

NGC 2175, The Monkey Head Nebula, a blog post HERE






Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Exhibition in Galleria Kajaste, Oulu, Finland




My first art gallery exhibition in Oulu, Finland. 

April 8. - 26.
Wed. - Fri. 14 -19
Sat. - Sun. 12-16

Welcome!

More info about exhibition (In Finnish)
Tietoa näyttelystä suomeksi
http://www.galleriakajaste.fi/galleria/nykyinen-nayttely/



Info about the photo above
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2015/02/ic-405-flaming-star-nebula.html




Monday, April 13, 2015

Melotte 15, a new revision



I did some minor tweaking with the Heart nebula project.  This is a new version out of the 
Melotte 15 area at the heart of the Heart, IC 1805.


Heavenly view to the Melotte 15
Click for a large image

Image is in mapped colors from an emission of  the ionized elements, H-alpha, S-II and O-III. 


A 1:1 detail of the photo above
Click for a large image

The whole large mosaic of the Heart Nebula is at the same resolution.


The whole IC 1805 in mapped colors
Click for a high resolution photo, 2300x1900 pixels and 3MB

Melotte 15 are can be seen at the very center of the IC 1805. The original blog post about this image HERE





Saturday, April 11, 2015

All my new astronomical photos from the Winter season 2014-15

My humble thanks to the supporters, they made my work possible at this Winter season!
First class products and service

This is a collection of my photos from the past Winter season. We are now out of astronomical darkness for about six months due to high latitude, 65N. As every time, it's hard to give up imaging the beauty of the deep sky.

The season was very cloudy too. We had over three months a solid cloud cover this winter and clear nights just now and then. The good side is, that I have been forced to develop new imaging and processing methods to be able to finalise maximum number of photos. The "Tone mapping" method and a new unpublished "VARES" (Variable Resolution imaging method) are very powerful tools for astrophotography. I'll publish the VARES.method in a year or so, after I have tested it well enough.

All of my photos are taken from a light polluted downtown.

A closeup from my last image of the season, IC 1805, the Heart nebula
Click for a large image, 1400 x 1900 and ~2MB
Melotte 15 is a small part of the large mosaic image


A poster format collection from all of my photos from Winter 2014-15
Be sure to click for a large image, 2500 x 4000 pixels and 8MB

Astro Anarchy Observatory Winter 2014-2015


Images in the poster above, from upper left to lower right


  1. NGC 2175, The Monkey Head Nebula, a blog post HERE
  2. NGC 1491, a blog post HERE
  3. Messier 13, a blog post HERE
  4. Messier 3, a blog post HERE
  5. IC 417,  a blog post HERE
  6. Pelican Nebula mosaic, a blog post HERE
  7. IC 443 SNR, a blog post HERE
  8. Cederblad 214, a blog post HERE
  9. Soul Nebula, IC 1848 mosaic, a blog post HERE
  10. IC 410, a blog post HERE
  11. The Propeller Nebula, a blog post HERE
  12. IC 1805, The Heart Nebula,  a blog post HERE
  13. The Great Wall of Cygnus, a blog post HERE
  14. NGC 1795, a blog post HERE
  15. The Tulip Nebula, Sh2-101, a blog post HERE  NASA APOD
  16. Sharpless 115 & Apell 71 PN, a blog post HERE
  17. Pickering's Triangle in O-III light only, a blog post HERE
  18. Sharpless 132, Sh2-132, a blog post HERE
  19. IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula, a blog post HERE
  20. Abell 85 (CTB1) SNR, a blog post HERE
  21. Sharpless objects 232, 231, 233 and 235, a blog post HERE
  22. NGC 281, a blog post HERE


Some highlights of the season past


Supporters, my humble thanks to the supporters, they made my work possible once again!
This setup was possible due to great support!
The new imaging system. Some image quality analysis can be seen HERE

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014, Royal Observatory of Greenwich, third place.
Over 2500 images from 51 countries participated.

  • I also got one NASA APOD published (Astronomy Picture Of the Day) at November 15, the Tulip nebula.
NASA publication, Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula


  • Suomen Kuvalehti wrote a large article at the last issue of the year 2014 about my photographing, eleven pages total. (SK 51-52 19.12.2014, pages 1 and 42-51)




California Nebula as an experimental 3D-model
In constellation Perseus


This is a looped video, click to start and stop. This is an experimental test with a 3D-conversion of my astronomical images. Only real elements from my original image are used, there is nothing added but the volumetric information!

I was invited as one of the speakers at the NEAIC conferenceNew York, Spring 2014. 

Two large public artworks from my photos get revealed at 2014. A very large, over 10 x 3m, photographic print on aluminium "Cirrus of Cygnus" and the "Path of Swans", 4 x 2m, on aluminium. Beside public works, many of my photos ended up to a private homes.
Path of Swans, 4x2m

Cirrus of Cygnus 10x3m, the large mosaic image is a very sharp even in this scale.

  • I participated to two art exhibitions with my astronomical photos, one in Helsinki and another here in Oulu. 
3D-exhibition in Helsinki, large anaglyph photos, paintings and a movie.

Sale exhibition in Oulu

One of the most interesting tasks at 2014 was a cooperation with the vocal ensemble Cappella pro Vocale. This cross art production was a mixture of an old vocal music and the astronomical images. The production  took place at the church of  St Thomas. My photos get  projected with three powerful projectors on walls and sealing and everything was matched with the music carefully.  
Projected images in church of St Thomas, image copyright Tuula Jurvelin

Image copyright Antti Nevalainen

Image copyright Jaakko Nurro

Image copyright Jaakko Nurro


  • Optikfestival in Skara, Sweden


Interior of the shop, they have a large stock of products on site.

I had a pleasure to be invited as one of the speakers in "Optikfestival Skara", Sweden. The happening was organized by a Astrosweden, a largest optics retailer in Sweden. They are specialized to Astronomy, nature photography, hunting and microscopy. I was really impressed by the passion and knowledge they have about the the optics! 

  • An exhibition in Galleria Kajaste, Oulu, Finland








Friday, April 10, 2015

My last imaging project for this Winter season, a high resolution mosaic image of the Heart Nebula


We are now out of astronomical darkness for about six months due to high latitude, 65N. As every time, it's hard to give up imaging the beauty of the deep sky.

IC 1805, the Heart Nebula is my last imaging project for this season. It's a very high resolution, six panels mosaic image. Image is shot between 20. February and 21. March, total exposure time is 49h. Original size is about 11.000 x 9000 pixels at the scale of one arcsecond/pixel.

IC 1805
Be sure to click for a high resolution photo, 2300x1900 pixels and 3MB

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum. A higher resolution version can be seen HERE


Image in mapped colors
Click for a high resolution photo, 2300x1900 pixels and 3MB

Image is in mapped colors from an emission of  the ionized elements. Golden areas are from emission of sulfur and hydrogen, S-II and H-alpha, blueish areas are from ionized oxygen, O-III.


Closeups from the mosaic
Click for a higher resolution

IC 1795

This image was published at March 31, 2015. Blog post about it can be seen HERE


The heart of the Heart, Melotte 15
Click for a higher resolution

This part of the mosaic image was published at March 9, 2015. Blog post about it can be seen HERE


IC 1805 in light of an ionized hydrogen, H-alpha, alone.

Click for a higher resolution






INFO

This high resolution photo of the IC 1805, the Heart nebula, is a six panel mosaic. (Original size is about 11.000 x 9000 pixels at the scale of one arcsecond/pixel.) It shows many details in the IC 1805, like the Melotte 15 at the heart of the Heart Nebula. Total exposure time for this narrowband photo is 49h.

The "Heart Nebula", IC 1805 locates about 7500 light years away in constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glow of ionized elements in a gas cloud and some darker dust lanes.In a very center of the nebula, lays Melotte 15, it contains few very bright stars, nearly 50 times mass of our Sun, and many dim ones. The solar wind, a radiation pressure, from massive stars makes the gas twist to a various shapes.


Orientation in a wide field photo

The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, at right. The Soul Nebula, IC 1848, can be seen at left.


The Soul Nebula, IC 1848

My previous imaging project from this area was a two frame mosaic photo of the Soul Nebula at last Autumn season, it can be seen HERE

Click for a large image



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

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, 72 x 1200s = 24h
O-III, 42 x 1200s binned 4x4 = 14h
S-II, 33 x 1200s  binned 4x4 = 11h
Total 49h




Monday, April 6, 2015

A globular cluster Messier 3



I have shot couple of clusters at this Autumn season and I have published an image of Messier 13 in Hercules before. My light polluted location is not ideal for broadband targets, like clusters, but with little extra work with processing, they turned to be kind of beautiful. Image is shot at March 17. 2015.

Messier 3 (M3)
Click for a large image

LRGB shot of Messier 3


A closeup



INFO

Messier 3 (also known as M3 or NGC 5272) is a globular cluster in the constellation Canes Venatici. This cluster is one of the largest and brightest and It's located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years away from Earth. M3 has an apparent magnitude of 6.2, making it visible to the naked eye under dark conditions.


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

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2

Custom Scientific LRGB 50mm Square Filters 

Exposure times
Luminance, 8 x 600s = 1h 20min
Red, 6 x 200s binned 2x2 = 20 min.
Green, 6 x 200s binned 2x2= 20 min.
Blue, 6 x 200s  binned 2x2 = 20 min
Total 2h 20min