Showing posts with label Narrowband color images. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Narrowband color images. Show all posts
Sunday, December 15, 2024
New Photo, Sharpless 115 in Cygnus
This Portion of sky covers less than a square degrees of sky in Constellation Cygnus, the Swan.
This star nursery has always looked to me like like it was cut out of the Baroque painting.
I was able to shoot a high resolution data for it with my new imaging setup. The Celestron Edge 14". This telescope has a beautiful optics and with a secondary mirror focuser, it'll hold the collimation perfectly all the time. Normally the heavy main mirror is used for focusing and it can be source of optical problems when it moves due to gravity when the scope is moving and pointing to a different portions of sky.
BAROQUE SKY OF SHARPLESS 115
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
200% Enlarged Portion of the Full Resolution Photo
Click for a full size, 2000x2000 pixels
INFO
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.
Source: NASA APOD
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.
Source: NASA APOD
Sharpless 115 in visual colors
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue, this combination is very close to a natural color palette.
Sh2-115 in a large context
Please, click for a large image, NOTE. 4000x5000 pixels
This is my very large mosaic photo of the whole Cygnus, more info about this massive photo
can be seen in this blog post, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/12/cygnus-mosaic-gets-large.html
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 calibrated 20 min exposure of H-alpha, Bin 1x1
Click for a full size image.
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.
200% Enlarged Portion of the Full Resolution Photo
Click for a full size, 2000x2000 pixels
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, in a Close Up of the Full Resolution Photo
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.
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)
200% Enlarged Portion of the Full Resolution Photo
Click for a full size, 2000x2000 pixels
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
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Milky Way, 12 years, 1250 hours of exposures and 125 x 22 degrees of sky
NEW! BUY A POSTER
https://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/
https://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/
It took nearly twelve years to collect enough data for this high resolution gigapixel class mosaic image of the Milky Way. Total exposure time used is around 1250 hours between 2009 and 2021.
" I can hear music in this composition, from the high sounds of sparcs and bubbles at left all the way to a deep and massive sounds at right."
From Taurus to Cygnus
Click for a large image, it's really worth it! (7000 x 1300 pixels)
Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by an ionized elements, hydrogen = green, sulfur = red and oxygen = blue. NOTE, the apparent size of the Moon in a lower left corner. NOTE 2, there are two 1:1 scale enlargements from the full size original at both ends of the image
NEW, A HD-video from Germany shows my photo in full glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Z60eZ4yqM
(Video in Germany but images are the international language)
Close ups form the parts of the Grande Mosaic
NEW, A HD-video from Germany shows my photo in full glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Z60eZ4yqM
(Video in Germany but images are the international language)
Close ups form the parts of the Grande Mosaic
Cygnus side of the mosaic, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html
Cassiopeia side of the mosaic, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/01/mosaic-image-gets-large-400-hours-and.html
Taurus side of the mosaic, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-new-mosaic-image-from-taurus-to.html
A closeup from large panorama to show the overall resolution
Click for a large image
The California Nebula, NGC 1499, can be seen at bottom left of the large mosaic image.
There are about 20 million individual stars visible in the whole mosaic image.
There are about 20 million individual stars visible in the whole mosaic image.
Orientation and details
Click for a large image
Click for a large image
Imaging info
Image spans 125 x 22 degrees of the Milky About 20 million individual stars are visible in my photo!
Image spans 125 x 22 degrees of the Milky About 20 million individual stars are visible in my photo!
It took almost twelve years to finalize this mosaic image. The reason for a long time period is naturally the size of the mosaic and the fact, that image is very deep. Another reason is that I have soht most of the mosaic frames as an individual compositions and publish them as independent artworks. That leads to a kind of complex image set witch is partly overlapping with a lots of unimaged areas between and around frames. I have shot the missing data now and then during the years and last year I was able to publish many sub mosaic images as I got them ready first.
My processing workflow is very constant so very little tweaking was needed between the mosaic frames. Total exposure time is over 1250 hours. Some of the frames has more exposure time, than others. There are some extremely dim objects clearly visible in this composition, like a extremely dim supernova remnant W63, the Cygnus Shell. It lays about six degrees up from North America nebula and it can be seen as a pale blue ring. I spent about 100 hours for this SNR alone. An other large and faint supernova remnant in Cygnus can be seen at near right edge of the image. G65.5+5.7 is as large as more famous Veil nebula. There are over 60 exposure hours for this SNR alone. (Veil SNR is just outside of the mosaic area for compositional reasons but can be seen in "Detail" image above.)
My processing workflow is very constant so very little tweaking was needed between the mosaic frames. Total exposure time is over 1250 hours. Some of the frames has more exposure time, than others. There are some extremely dim objects clearly visible in this composition, like a extremely dim supernova remnant W63, the Cygnus Shell. It lays about six degrees up from North America nebula and it can be seen as a pale blue ring. I spent about 100 hours for this SNR alone. An other large and faint supernova remnant in Cygnus can be seen at near right edge of the image. G65.5+5.7 is as large as more famous Veil nebula. There are over 60 exposure hours for this SNR alone. (Veil SNR is just outside of the mosaic area for compositional reasons but can be seen in "Detail" image above.)
The Mosaic Work, technical info
I took my current toolset as a base tool since it has a relatively high resolution combined to a very large field of view. Also it collects photons very quickly since it's undersampled and I can have very dim background nebulosity visible in very short time (many times 30 min frame is enough)
I do all my mosaic work under the PhotoShop, Matching the separate panels by using stars as an indicator is kind of straight forward work. My processing has become so constant, that very little tweaking is needed between separate frames, just some minor levels, curves and color balance.
I have used lots of longer focal length sub-frames in my mosaic to boost details. (See the mosaic map at top of the page) To match them with shorter focal length shots I developed a new method.
Firstly I upscale the short focal length frames about 25% to have more room for high resolution images.Then I match the high res photo to a mosaic by using the stars as an indicator. After that I remove all the tiny stars from the high res image. Next I separate stars from low res photo and merge the starless high res data to a starless low res frame. And finally I place the removed low res stars back at top of everything with zero data lost. Usually there are some optical distortions and it's seen especially in a star field. Now all my stars are coming from a same optical setup and I don't have any problems with distortions. (I'm using the same star removal technique as in my Tone Mapping Workflow)
Closeups from large panorama to show the overall resolution
Click for a large image
IC 405 6 410 area
IC 1396
Click for a large image
Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by an ionized elements, hydrogen = green, sulfur = red and oxygen = blue.
A 1:3 resolution close up from the photo above
Click for a large image,
Click for a large image,
A closeup from the main image shows the Sharpless 124 at up and the Cocoon nebula with a dark gas stream at bottom.
Sharpless 205, NGC 1491 and Lynds Bright Nebula 696
IC 405 6 410 area
From Bubble to Cave Nebula
Image info, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-bubble-to-cave-nebula-area.html
Not an igloo, this is reality of astro photographing in Finland
The tulip nebula area
The Tulip Nebula, Sh2-101, can be seen at center right, there is also a black hole Cygnus X-1
The blog post with technical details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-tulip-nebula-in-cygnus-sh2-101.html
The blog post with technical details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-tulip-nebula-in-cygnus-sh2-101.html
The supernova remnant G65.3+5.7
More info about this image here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/g65357-large-supernova-remnant-in_22.html
My Observatory,
Thursday, March 3, 2022
Sharpless 114, a Cosmic Dragon, is now the Ukrainian Ironbelly
This cosmic photograph is dedicated to Ukrainian people and a deadly fight they are forced to.
I have renamed Sharpless 114, the Flying Dragon Nebula, to the Ukrainian Ironbelly, after a dragon seen in Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The whole world is now witnessing the barbaric actions of the brutal Russian dictator Putin. As an artist and astrophotographer, I thought about what I could do to help Ukraine and its people. All proceeds from the sale of this NFT will go to efforts supporting the Ukrainian people during this war.
UKRAINIAN IRONBELLY
(Click for a large image)
Upper image, Flying Dragon nebula, Sharpless 114 (Sh2-114)
Bottom Image, Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon - as seen in Harry Potter Movie
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
WB Studio Tour Entrance Claire Evans / Alamy Stock Photo
4K MOVIE,
SHARPLESS 114, THE UKRAINIAN IRONBELLY
4K movie, best seen as full screen
A story behind this artwork
Few days ago I was working with my new photo, showing a rarely imaged object Sharpless 114 in Eastern part of constellation Cygnus, the Swan. The official nickname for the object is the Flying Dragon Nebula. As I worked with this photo, I had a strong feeling that I have seen it before but I couldn't remember where.
I woke up in the middle of the night realizing that I have seen this nebula in the movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Yes, I'm a nerd)
There is a magical creature in a movie, a massive dragon called the Ukrainian Ironbelly. It turned out to be the creature that among other things, helped Ukrainians during the WW1 as a "wizarding air force" (Source Harry Potter Fandom Wiki)
I believe that this can be a great symbol for the Ukrainian fight against the Russian monsters.
This is also a great symbol for a modern version of Ukrainian Ironbelly, the Turkish made drone, Bayraktar-TB2, a most important weapon in war against Russians tanks in Ukraine. As a dragon, this drone is producing a steel melting "jet of fire" against murderess Russian main battle tanks and saves countless of Ukrainian lives as we speak.
This is an extremely personal art project to me as a Finnish citizen. We have a 1340 km (830 mi) common border with Russia and there is a huge risk that we might be the next victims of the brutal dictator of Russia.
All proceeds from the sale of this NFT will go to efforts supporting the Ukrainian people during this war.
History of Ukrainian Ironbelly by Harry Potter Fandom
Source: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Ukrainian_Ironbelly
Source: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Ukrainian_Ironbelly
Ironbellies had been subject to constant observation by the Ukrainian wizarding authorities, ever since a particular Ironbelly carried off a sailing ship from the Black Sea in 1799. Thankfully, the boat was empty at the time.
In 1926, Newt Scamander mentioned to Jacob Kowalski that he had previously worked with Ukrainian Ironbellies during the First World War. In that same war, Ukrainian Ironbellies were also considered for use in a wizarding air force. The Ironbelly could produce jets of flame up to 3,560 degrees Fahrenheit (1960 degrees Celsius).
It does look like a dragon
(Click for a large image)
(Click for a large image)
This artwork is also a symbol of the Bayraktar-TB2 drone, a modern version of Ukrainian Ironbelly. It has saved countless of Ukrainian lives from a barbaric attack of the brutal dictator Putin
This Turkish drone has saved countless of Ukrainian lives from a barbaric attack of the brutal dictator Putin
INFO about Sharpless 114, Sh2-114
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)
Technical details of the photo
I have combined the old and new data by my new powerful imaging and processing method,
the VARES (VAriable RESolution imaging)
I have combined the old and new data by my new powerful imaging and processing method,
the VARES (VAriable RESolution imaging)
Processing workflow
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
New Data
Imaging optics
Tokina AT-x f2.8 camera lens
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Exposure time
H-alpha, 15 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 5 h
O-III, 1x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 20 min.
S-II, 1 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 20 min.
Sharpless 114, orientation in Cygnus
Sharpless 114, orientation in Cygnus
The Sh2-114 is marked as white rectangle
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Cederblad 214, the Cosmic Question Mark
I have published this photo back in February 2020 but I have done some reprocessing and repost this image now since this photo of Cosmic Question Mark has symbolic value to me. A cosmic curiosity is the very reason I'm doing this difficult, and sometimes frustrating, form of nature photographing art.
Cederblad 214, the Cosmic Question Mark
Click for a large image
Image info, technical data and more images of this object, https://tinyurl.com/yeykd3wc
Monday, February 14, 2022
Supernova remnant HB3 and the cosmic heart
I have shot this target originally at January 14 2020 and it was the second light to my modified Tokina lens. Now I have reprocessed the data and I do like this result much better.
new imaging system based on Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens.
The Heart Nebula, IC 1805
Please, click for a large image
Going very deep just in two hours! Image is in visual color palette from emission of an ionized hydrogen and oxygen. R=hydrogen, G=Oxygen and B=oxygen. I have made a starless version out of this image, it can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/an-animated-heart-nebula-ic1805805-with.html
SUPERNOVA REMNANT 132.7+1.3 (HB3)
IC 1805 in visual palette
Please, click for a large image
Supernova remnant
In this photo there is a large supernova remnant, marked as a white circle. I haven't seen any photos of it before. I must take more O-III exposures to see, if I'm able to pick up any signal from this supernova remnant.
Radio image of the area shows mostly signal from OB6
Technical details
Processing workflow
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
Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Total exposure time
H-alpha, 12 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 3x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 30 min..
S-II, 2x1200 s, binned 2x2 = 40 min.
O-III, 3x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 30 min..
S-II, 2x1200 s, binned 2x2 = 40 min.
INFO About undersampling etc
The CCD I'm using has kind of large pixels, 9 microns, so I'm undersampled, the image scale is almost 5 arc seconds / pixel. Undersampling is not a bad thing when my targets are large and dim nebula complexes. This system collects photons very fast!
I selected the Heart Nebula as a target since I have plenty of reference material for it. Another reason is interesting and rarely imaged area after the bright tip of the heart. There are some remnants of a supernova explosion. I was really thrilled, when I saw the final stack of 12 600s H-alpha light frames. (Equal to 2h of exposures) I never have seen so much background nebulae and details from this popular target.
Beside 2h of H-alpha (Light from an ionized hydrogen) I shot 30 min of O-IIII (Light from an ionized Oxygen) To be able to make an image in visual palette.
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Cygnus Mosaic in Visual Colors
Three Musketeers of Swan
Deepest and most detailed image showing the whole constellation Cygnus ever taken
There are three large supernova remnants visible in this image. The Veil nebula is the most bright of them, other two are really dim and diffused. I spent about 200 exposure hours for those two alone to show them well. I call this trio to the Three musketeers.
I like the new composition, it's very dynamic and shows the whole constellation Cygnus first time ever at this detail level and deepness. I haven't seen anything like this before. Image spans now 31 x 23 degrees of sky and has 118 individual frames in it. total exposure time is now around 700 hours and the resolution 20.000 x 25.500 pixels. Image it took over a decade to finalize this photo between 2010 and 2021.
The mapped color version of this mosaic can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/12/cygnus-mosaic-gets-large.html
Bang, Bang & Bang
Three large supernova remnants in the same field of view
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Three Large Supernova Remnants
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INFO
Three supernova remnants, two Wolf Rayet stars and a black hole
In the orientation image above, there are three large supernova remnants visible, first the Cygnus Shell W63 , bluish ring at middle left, secondly the large SNR G65.3+5.7 at upper right and the third is a brighter SNR, the Veil nebula at right edge of the image.
Beside three supernova remnants there are two Wolf Rayet stars with outer shell formations. NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula at center of the image and the WR 134, it can be seen as a blue arch just right from the Crescent Nebula, near the Tulip nebula.
Next to the Tulip Nebula lays a Black hole Cygnus X-1
Constellation Cygnus is an endless source of celestial wonders, both scientifically and aesthetically. For me, as an visual artist, this are of night sky is very inspiring There are endless amount of amazing shapes and structures, I can spend rest of my life just shooting images from this treasury.
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