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Saturday, November 14, 2015

IC 1936, a closeup



I have spent most nights at this Autumn season by shooting dim targets around Cygnus.
At night of  2. November I shot few frames from a brighter target, IC 1396, in Cepheus. Just one hour of H-alpha light and one 20 min frame for O-III and S-II before clouds rolled in. Just got the data processed and the photo turned to be kind of nice, so I'm publishing it here. This is a second photo out of IC 1396 at this Autumn. The first one from the Elephant's Trunk Nebula can be seen HERE.

IC 1396
Click for a large image

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements.


IC 1396 in mapped colors
Click for a large image

Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements. 
Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen.


Orientation in IC 1396
Click for a large image

More info about this image can be seen HERE.


Orientation in constellation Cepheus
Click for a large image (3000 pixels wide)

A ten panel mosaic image of Cepheus, exposure time 92h. 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, 21 iterations, added at 25% 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, 3 x 1200s = 1h
O-III, 1 x 1200s binned = 20min.
S-II,  1 x 1200s = 20min.
Total 1h 40min.





Thursday, November 12, 2015

Filaments of Cygnus, a new processing for natural colors



As usually, I reprocessed the two frame mosaic of Cygnus filaments. The color balance and stars are better now and more details are visible. This area in Western Cygnus is rarely imaged since it has a low surface brightness and more attractive targets are nearby. 


Cygnus filaments in visual spectrum
Click for a large image

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements. 
This palette is very close to a visual spectrum. Image in mapped colors can be seen HERE


A large mosaic image of the area
Click for a high resolution image

A large mosaic of "Cirrus of Cygnus" 2012. More info HERE
An area left from the center is seen in longer focal length photo above.


Even larger mosaic of the Cygnus
Click for a much large image

Info about this image HERE


Overlaid with a Cartes Du Ciel screenshot.


Technical details

Technical details can be seen in this blog post,
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2015/10/filaments-of-cygnus-project-continues.html




Tuesday, November 10, 2015

More filaments of Cygnus and couple of planetary nebulae



I just got this photo processed. It's showing an area near the Propeller Nebula, I noticed this dim planetary nebula candidate,  PN PM 1-320, back in 2011 while I was shooting the Propeller Nebula with my 300mm Tokina lens. At the same image field there is another planetary nebula too, PK 84+9.1


Filaments of Cygnus with couple of planetary nebulae
Click for a large image

Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements. Red=Sulfur, 
Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen. A large blueish spot at middle left is a PN PM 1-320. 
A small pale red dot at upper right is a planetary nebula PK 84+9.1


An experimental starless view
Click for a large image

It looks to me, that the PN PM 1-320 forms a bubble shaped shock front in the interstellar gas.


Closeup of the PN PM 1-320



Closeup of the PK 84+9.1



Wide field image of the area

A pale bluish area at upper right is the PK 84+9.1 This image was taken at Autumn 2011, original blog post can be seen here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html


Technical details

Processing work flow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 21 iterations, added at 25% 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, 9x 1200s = 3h
O-III, 6 x 1200s binned = 2h 
S-II, from an older wide field photo = 1h 
Total 6h


Monday, November 9, 2015

Filaments of Cygnus


There are lots of dim gas filaments at west side of the Cygnus nebula complex. I have spent this Autumn season by shooting them. Due to close proximity of brighter and more eye catching nebulae in Cygnus, this area is not very commonly imaged.


Filaments of Cygnus
Click for a large image

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements.


Filaments of Cygnus in HST-mapped colors
Click for a large image

Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements. 
Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen.


An experimental starless version
Click for a large image

The actual nebula is easier to observe in this starless photo


A closeup

Interesting shapes in the nebula, they must be some kind of shock fronts


Orientation in the constellation Cygnus
Click for a large image

The area of interest is marked as a white rectangle in this 18-panels narrow band mosaic of the Cygnus.


Technical details

Processing work flow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 21 iterations, added at 25% 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, 6 x 1200s binned = 2h
S-II,  6 x 1200s binned = 2h
Total 9h




Sunday, November 8, 2015

Sharpless 114, Sh2-114, the Flying Dragon Nebula



I have spent this Autumn season by shooting rarely imaged dimmer targets around Cygnus. So far I have stayed at Western parts of Cygnus nebula complex. This time I picked a target form the Eastern side, Sh2-114, the Flying Dragon Nebula. There are very few images out of this dim nebula.

This is a preliminary processing, I will shoot more exposures for this, whenever weather up here allows me to do so.

Sharpless-114, the Flying Dragon Nebula
Click for a large image

Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements. 
Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen.

A closeup
Click for a large image



An experimental starless version
Click for a large image

The actual nebula is easier to observe in this starless version. At center left, there is an odd looking corkscrew like  formation of glowing hydrogen and sulfur pointing upwards left. The pale bluish dot at top right is a bipolar planetary nebula Lan 384 or currently known as Kn 26.


Image in visual spectrum
Click for a large image

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements. 


INFO

Sh2-114 is a complex and unusual HII emission nebula. Its complex, wispy structure is likely the result of winds from hot, massive stars interacting with the magnetic fields in the interstellar medium. But very little is known about it. (Source, https://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1112.html)

There is a planetary nebula at the same field of view, Lan 384 (Kn 26)
Using existing digital sky surveys, Jacoby et al. (2010) presented Kn 26, a bipolar PN candidate known for a long time as the emission line source Lan 384. Here we present high spatial-resolution optical and near-IR narrow-band images of this nebula, high-dispersion long-slit echelle spectra, and low-resolution spectroscopy. The new data confirm the PN nature of Kn 26 and reveal features typical of bipolar PNe: butterfly morphology, H2 emission, and nitrogen enrichment. A detailed analysis of the morphology and kinematics, however, suggests the possible presence of two pairs of bipolar lobes that would make Kn 26 a new member of the class of quadrupolar PN.  (Source, http://www.iac.es/congreso/iaus283/pages/meeting/view-abstract.php?aid=138)


Lan 384 closeup

Info from Simbad database, http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=Lan+384
Some latest info confirms this a s bipolar planetary nebulahttp://www.iac.es/congreso/iaus283/pages/meeting/view-abstract.php?aid=138


Technical details

Processing work flow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 21 iterations, added at 25% 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, 9x 1200s = 3h
O-III, 3 x 1200s binned = 1h 
S-II,  3 x 1200s binned = 1h 
Total 5h




A single uncropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame as it comes from the camera