Showing posts with label Images with Active Optics (SXV-AO). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Images with Active Optics (SXV-AO). Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Sharpless 261, the "Lower's Nebula"
This starts to be my final images for this season. We'll be out of an astronomical darkness in couple of weeks, up here 65N.
Difficult target just above the Orion, I have spent three night trying to collect enough photons to have a nice image. Sh2-261 doesn't rise very high up here, so I have only around three hours per night to shoot this.
I manged to collect five hours of H-a light and six hours UHCs-filtered colors. 11h total exposure time is not too much for this object.
Sharpless 261 (Sh2-261) , the Lower's Nebula
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
INFO
SH2-261, or Lower's Nebula, is a Hydrogen Alpha emission region located in the upper area of Orion, near the Gemini constellation. Image covers about a same area as a full Moon. There is no information about the distance of this hydrogen cloud, so we are not able to determine how large it is.
The nebula is named after amateur astronomers Harold Lower and his son Charles, who discovered this nebula in 1939 from a picture taken with their homemade 8 inch, f/1 Schmidt camera.
Image in Hydrogen alpha light alone
Technical details
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 7Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
15 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 5h
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Color exposures with QHY8 single shot color camera
36x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 6h
36x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 6h
Friday, March 15, 2013
Rosette Nebula, a closeup, part II
I have combined the new Rosette data to an old one, from the year 2010.
New image has little different colors and much tighter stars. The natural color image, more or less red, is done by combining colors from wider field Rosette image to a closeup. Wide field image used is shot with Tokina 300mm f2.8 camera optics, UHC-s-filter and the QHY8 color camera. UHCs-filter from Baader delivers natural colors to the Nebula and stars. UHCs-data is shot simultaneously with new image of H-a emission.
Rosette Nebula & a star cluster NGC 2239
Ra 06h 33m 45s Dec +04° 59′ 54″
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
¨
A new data alone
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
A leaping Puma
A detail, from the image above, looks like a leaping puma!
INFO
The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, circular H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros. The open cluster NGC 2244(Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter. The cluster and nebula locates at a distance of about 5,200 light years from Earth. The diameter is about 130 light years.
The radiation from the young stars ionized the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit light, typical to each element, producing the visible nebula. Stellar winds, radiation pressure, from a group of stars cause compression to the interstellar clouds, followed by star formation in the nebula. This star formation is currently still ongoing.
Rosette closeup in mapped colors
from narrowband channels
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A new data alone
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A wide field image of the Rosette Nebula
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Blog post about the image with technical data:
A study about an apparent scale
Click for a large image!
Note. A moon size circle in the images as a scale. (Moon has an apparent size of 0.5 degrees, that's equal to 30 arc minutes)
Technical details
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 11Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
13 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 4h 20min.
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Data from 2010
H-alpha 13x1200s, binned 1x1
Colors are taken from my older wide field image, for a mapped color composition, and new UHCs-filtered image, for a visual color composition.
emission.
UHCs-filtered image
Shot for color information
This image is used just for the color information. Only 20min. of exposures.
Tokina 300mm f2.8 camera optics, UHC-s-filter and the QHY8 color camera. UHCs-filter from Baader delivers natural colors to the Nebula and stars. UHCs-data is shot simultaneously with new image of H-a emission.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Rosette Nebula, a closeup
The weather up here 65N hasn't been very cooperative. My latest image, the Rosette Nebula, has taken during four different nights, about an hour at the time, before the clouds rolled in. Images are shot at 20.02, 25.02, 07.03 and 08.03. 2013.
I shot just H-alpha channel, other two channels, S-II and O-III are from an older wide field image of the same target.
"Rosette Nebula"
Ra 06h 33m 45s Dec +04° 59′ 54″
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
INFO
The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, circular H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros. The open cluster NGC 2244(Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter. The cluster and nebula locates at a distance of about 5,200 light years from Earth. The diameter is about 130 light years.
The radiation from the young stars ionized the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit light, typical to each element, producing the visible nebula. Stellar winds, radiation pressure, from a group of stars cause compression to the interstellar clouds, followed by star formation in the nebula. This star formation is currently still ongoing.
Natural colors
from narrowband channels
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III.
A wide field image
A wide field image of the Rosette Nebula in visual colors, taken with the Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and the cooled astronomical camera, QHY9.
Blog post about the image with technical data:
A study about an apparent scale
Click for a large image!
Note. A moon size circle in the images as a scale. (Moon has an apparent size of 0.5 degrees, that's equal to 30 arc minutes)
Technical details
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 11Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
13 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 4h 20min.
Colors are taken from my older wide field image
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and nonlinear stretched to visible.
Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
A new image, NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula
Image from last Tuesday, 19.02. I managed to use a crack in almost unbreakable cloud cover.
Result, ~4h exposures for the ionized Hydrogen of NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula.
While shooting with my old Meade 12", I shot colors simultaneously with the QHY8 astrocamera, Baader UHCs-filter and the Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens.
NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula
In the constellation Orion
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A closeup
Buy a photographic print from HERE
INFO
Image in mapped colors
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are shot with a QHY8 color camera, Tokina 300mm f2.8 optics and the Baader UHCs filter.
The open cluster IC 1590 can be seen at middle of the image.
Colors in the nebula are taken from this older image of mine:
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Note. A Moon size circle as a scale, click for a large image
More info about this scale study in blog post here:
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
12 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 4h
Optics and exposures used for colors
Tokina AT-X 300mm at f2.8
QHY8, a cooled single shot color camera
Baader UHC-s filter
Baader IR-cut filter
22x600s = 3,6h
Color channels for a mapped-palette image, O-III and S-II, are from an older image of mine.
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and nonliterary stretched to visible.
Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
And yes, it really does look like a head of a monkey!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
A new panorama from my IC 1805 material
Since I have shot several overlapping, longer focal length, images out of the IC 1805, the Heart Nebula, I'm able to stitch them together as a mosaic images.
A two frame panoramic mosaic of IC 1805 details
There are two images combined in this mosaic.
At left an unnamed trunk like formation, the original image with details can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/a-detail-from-heart-nebula.html
At right, a closeup image of an unnamed triangular shape, the original image with details can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/02/black-lace-detail-of-ic-1805-heart.html
The mosaic in natural colors
A natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements.
R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15% Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
IC 443, supernova remnant as a closeup
I have shot several times this supernova remnant in Gemini. In this image, there are three different exposure sets combined, first from the year 2010 and two others from this season. Total exposure time is now around 20h. Latest images for this target are shot at 11.02 this week, 3h of H-alpha emission.
A Gemini SNR, IC 443, the "Jellyfish Nebula"
Ra 06h 17m 13s Dec +22° 31′ 05′′
Image is in HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
INFO
IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini. It locates visually near the star Eta Geminorum at distance of about 5000 light years.
IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds
Source Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_443
IC 443 in visual colors
A natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements.
R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15% Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Older wide field images of the same target
Click for large images
A wide field image from Spring season 2012, Image info in the blog post here:
Two panel mosaic
A two panel mosaic, info in the original blogpost here:
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Click for a large image
Note. A Moon size circle as a scale.
Technical details
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
Exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 20h
Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field image.
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and stretched. Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Black Lace, a detail of IC 1805, the Heart Nebula
This have been one of the worst winters for astrophotographing up here 65N. Somehow I managed to shoot six hours of H-alpha light for this target under a bad transparency, seeing was kind of good though.
Generally I'll like to shoot two or three times more exposures per target but if I'll do so, I might get only four new images per year... For the same reasons I have used my older, wide field, images as a source of color data. Naturally it's better to shoot all the color channel at same focal length but ones again, weather up here is too volatile for that.
OK, enough whining here. I proudly present the new image of IC 1805 from 5. January,
Black Lace, a detail of IC 1805, the Heart nebula
A closeup of IC 1805 in mapped colors. Edges of the triangle shape, at middle right, looks like a black lace.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A mosaic with Melotte 15
Since this new image of mine was overlapping with the Melotte 15 image, I made a two frame mosaic out of them.
A mapped color mosaic image shows the Melotte 15 at upper right corner.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Black Lace in natural colors
Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements.
R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15% Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Orientation in the Heart Nebula
The area of interest is marked with a white rectangle.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
INFO
The "Heart Nebula", IC1805 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.
Technical details
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
18 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 6h
Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field images.
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and stretched. Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
NGC 281, the Pac-Man Nebula
A new image from the last week, NGC 281, I spend four nights imaging but the bad seeing and some thin upper clouds ruined majority of my frames. I managed to get enough exposures for two images, the Soul Nebula detail and this shot of Pac-Man Nebula.
NGC 281, in Cassiopeia
Ra 00h 52m 59.3s Dec +56° 37′ 19″
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are shot with a QHY8 color camera, Tokina 300mm f2.8 optics and the Baader UHCs filter.
Image is taken at 21. Jan. and there are 23x20min H-alpha light collected for it, color data is borrowed from my older image of the NGC 281. This is the third time for my tandem camera system, Star and natural color of the nebula are shot at the same time, as the closeup image, with the QHY8 color camera and the Baader UHCs-filter. This filter delivers real colors for the stars, even though it's kind of narrowband filter.
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.
NGC281 spans over 80 light years at its estimated distance of 9500 light years.
An experimental 3D study of NGC 281
This is a link to a 3D-movie, please, have a look:
NGC 281 in visual colors
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A study about the shapes
Lines in the image are showing, how the pillar-like formations are all pointing to the source of solar wind and ionization, the open cluster IC 1590, inside the Pack_man Nebula.
There are some denser material at tip of the pillar like formations and it's able to resist the radiation pressure from the open cluster IC 1590, at the middle of the nebula. Typically those tips are future homes for newly born stars, as well as dark globules seen in the image. The same open cluster is coursing the ionization in Pac-Man Nebula by its radiation. each ionized element in the nebula emits light at the typical wave length.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 12Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
24 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 8h
Optics and exposures used for colors
Tokina AT-X 300mm at f2.8
QHY8, a cooled single shot color camera
Baader UHC-s filter
Baader IR-cut filter
16x900s = 4h
Color channels for a mapped-palette image, O-III and S-II, are from an older image of mine.
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and stretched. Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Soul Nebula detail, IC 1848
I was able to shoot through four nights at last week. Unfortunately three of those night was ruined by a bad seeing, FWHM around 7, and nearly invisible thin clouds ate out the weaker signals. However, I had enough good data for couple of new images, here is the first one, IC 1848.
A closeup of IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula"
Ra 02h 51m 36.24s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are shot with a QHY8 color camera, Tokina 300mm f2.8 optics and the Baader UHCs filter.
The open cluster IC 1848 can be seen at upper right edge of the image. (Two bright stars surrounded by a group of dimmer stars.)
The open cluster IC 1848 can be seen at upper right edge of the image. (Two bright stars surrounded by a group of dimmer stars.)
There are 14x20min H-alpha light collected for this image, color data is borrowed from my older wide field image of the Soul Nebula. This is the second time for my tandem camera system, Star colors are shot at the same time, as the closeup image, with the QHY8 color camera and the Baader UHCs-filter. This filter delivers real colors for the stars, even though it's kind of narrowband filter.
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 study about the apparent scale
IC 1848 in visual colors
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
Orientation and colors
The area of interest is marked with a white rectangle. Mapped colors, in up most image, are from this one.
This UHCs filtered image was shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
Colors in visual color image, second from the top, are taken from this image, as well as the star colors in both versions.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 12Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
15 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 5h
Optics and exposures used for colors
Optics and exposures used for colors
Tokina AT-X 300mm at f2.8
QHY8, a cooled single shot color camera
Baader UHC-s filter
Baader IR-cut filter
16x900s = 4h
16x900s = 4h
Color channels for a mapped-palette image, O-III and S-II, are from an older wide field image.
A single calibrated 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and stretched. Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
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