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Showing posts with label Narrowband color images. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Narrowband color images. Show all posts

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Zooming in to an emission nebula Sharpless 132

 

Since I have shot many targets with various of focal lengths I'm able to make zoom in series out of my material. This is a nice way to show the fractal nature of our universe, there is always something new to see when the detail level gets higher.
This is also a good method to show the orientation and the scale in a large context. 


A zoom in series to the Sharpless 132, Sh2-132
Click for a large image (Note a large image, 1600 x 8500 pixels)


Optical configurations used for this image series, Before year 2015, Canon EF 200 mm f1.8, Baader narrowband set and QHY9 astro camera. For long focal length work Meade GPS 12". After 2015 Celestron EDGE 11", Tokina AT-x 300 mm f2.8, Apogee Ata U16 astro camera and Astrodon narrowband filters.

photos used for the zoom in series
www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 1:00 PM 3 comments
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Thursday, February 18, 2021

Sharpless 132, sh2-132, with new data

 I have shot a large four panel mosaic out of the Sharpless 132 emission Nebula at february 2019. At the time I was using the Celestron EDGE 11" telescope with reducer.   Sh2-132 locates in the border of Cepheus and Lacerta at distance of about 10 000 ly. 

I shot same object with a shorter focal length  instrument, the Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera optics. Since the system is kind of undersampled, I got a very deep image of Sh2-132 just with four hours of exposures.

I have now combined those two images and the result has the best out of both worlds . All the high resolution details and the high signal to noise elements are from the long focal length photo and the dim background stuff is from short focal length photo. I have a new processing method to do this and it turned to be a very powerful for a work like this. I call it to VARES-method. Variable Resolution imaging. will be good tool when I want to go very deep very fast and have a high resolution details at the same time.
This is a way to combine best out of the correctly sampled and under sampled optical configurations!

I think this image is a good sample what VARES-technique can do.

Sharpless 132
Click for a large image

Sharpless 132 in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. (Hubble Palette)
A version with out VARES method can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2019/02/sharpless-132-sh2-132.html


A closeup 
Click for a large image




A wide field image of the Sharpless 132
Click for a large image

Sharpless 132 in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Image details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-new-photo-of-sharpless-132-sh2-132.html

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
Celestron EDGE 11" telescope with reducer

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

Total exposure time used for VARES-processing

Tokina camera optics
H-alpha, 6 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h

Celestron telescope
Total exposure time for all of the four panels together
H-alpha, 48 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 16 h
O-III, 24 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 8 h.
S-II, 18 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 6 h





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Monday, February 15, 2021

Zooming in to a heart of the Heart

 

Since I have shot many targets with various of focal lengths I'm able to make zoom in series out of my material. This is a nice way to show the fractal nature of our universe, there is always something new to see when the detail level gets higher.

A zoom in series to the Melotte 15 in the IC 1805, the Heat nebula
Click for a large image

Images are in mapped colors from the emission of an ionized elements, hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen.
NOTE, an apparent size of the Moon is marked in third photo for a scale.


www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 11:26 AM 0 comments
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Monday, February 8, 2021

Cygnus mosaic in visual colors

 
I have published this image in mapped colors at December 2020, it can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html

I have started this imaging project back at 2010. My aim was to make a high resolution mosaic covering the constellation Cygnus. Work like that takes time and patience, especially since I have worked so, that many of the individual sub mosaics or frames have been published as an individual artworks. Here is a poster format presentation about all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside wide field panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html

As a result I have now a huge 37 panel (And 58 long focal length sub-panel) mosaic panorama covering 28 x 18 degrees of sky.  I have collected photons way over 400 hours during past ten years for this photo. The full size mosaic image has a size of about 25.000 x 15.000 pixels.


A photo of five million stars*

Great Mosaic of Cygnus (2010-2020)
28x18 degrees, 97 panels and over 400 hours of exposure time

The full size photo is worth to see!  (2700 x 1700 pixels)An apparent size of the Moon is marked as a scale at bottom left of the picture frame. 
This is a large area of sky! (28 x 18 degrees) Image is in visual colours, from the emission of ionized elements in the area.
* I actually counted the stars and in this field of view there are little over five million individual stars!

Orientation
Three supernova remnants, two Wolf Rayet stars and a black hole
Please, click the image for full resolution

In the orientation image above, there are three large supernova remnants visible, first the Cygnus Shell W63 , bluish ring at upper left quarter, secondly the large SNR G65.3+5.7 at utmost right and finally the third is a brighter SNR, the Veil nebula just outside of field of view at bottom center. (Image is partly overlapping with large mosaic  but I didn't want to include it yet due to artistic composition.)

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, it's marked in small closeup image of the Tulip Neula at center right in orientation image above. 

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.



THE MOSAIC

Evolution of the mosaic between 2010 and 2020
Click for a large image




Mosaic panels in chronological order

There are 37 base panels with shorter focal length tools (300mm f2.8 Tokina and 200mm f1.8 Canon) There is also 59 sub-panels used, they are shot with my old 12" Meade and 11" Celestron Edge scopes.
NOTE I recalculated the total exposure time and it's actually way over 600 hours.
Here is a poster format presentation and a list all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside the actual panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html


Equipments used

I have used several optical configurations for this mosaic image during the years. Up to 2014 I was using an old Meade LX200 GPS 12" scope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and baader narrowband filter set. After 2014 I have had 10-micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and the Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set. I have shot many details with a longer focal length, before 2014 by using Meade 12" scope with reducer and after 2014 Celestron EDGE 11" and reducer. Quider camera has been Lodestar and Lodestar II.


Couple of close ups to show the resolution
Click for a large image

North america & pelican nebula region




Supernova remnant G65.3+5.7
The starfield in this part of Milky Way is extremely dense, blog post about this SNR can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-supernova-remnant-in-cygnus-g65357-snr.html


Cirrus of  Western Cygnus
Blog post about this photo, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cirrus-of-cygnus-and-supernova-remnant.html








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Monday, February 1, 2021

This gigapixel mosaic has about 1000 exposure hours between 2010 - 2021


Over a ten years and about 1000 hours of exposures, the image spans 82 x 20 degrees of sky at resolution of 17.000 x 72.000 pixels (Over a gigapixel) 
Individual frames are shot between 2010 and 2021, there are total 168 images stitched together! There are more than ten million stars visible in this mosaic image!

From Perseus to Cygnus
Click for a large image (6000 x 1500 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. 
Click for a large image 




Details
Click for a large image 




Evolution of the grande mosaic shot between 2010 and 2021
Click for a large image



Imaging info

It took over a ten 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 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 way over 900 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 but can be seen in "Detail" image above.) 
Frames used for the large mosaic
Click for a large image


Tools

I have used several optical configurations for this mosaic image during the years. Up to 2014 I was using an old Meade LX200 GPS 12" scope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and baader narrowband filter set. After 2014 I have had 10-micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and the Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set. I have shot many details with a longer focal length, before 2014 by using Meade 12" scope with reducer and after 2014 Celestron EDGE 11" and reducer. Quider camera has been Lodestar and Lodestar II.



Details from the large mosaic to show the resolution
(Images are reduced for a web usage)

Click for a large image!

North America and the Pelican Nebula

NOTE, image is reduced to 2000 x 1300 pixels from 6000 x 4000 pixels.



The Central Cygnus

Original size in mosaic image is 5000 x 2500 pixels


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


A closeup from the supernova remnant G65.3+5.7
The noise is not a noise, just a massive amount of stars

The starfield in this part of Milky Way is extremely dense, blog post about this SNR can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-supernova-remnant-in-cygnus-g65357-snr.html


The whole Cassiopeia




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


Cirrus of Cygnus and the supernova remnant W63

Blog post about this photo, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cirrus-of-cygnus-and-supernova-remnant.html








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Monday, January 25, 2021

Lower's Nebula

 I originally shot this data at february 2016, this is a reprocessed version. Lower's Nebula is also known as Sharpless 261 (Sh2-261) and it located in constellation Orion at an estimated distance of about 3300 light years, This is not a bright object, especially the O-III signal is very weak. Seeing wasn't very good at the time.

Lower's Nebula (Sh2-261)
Click for a large image

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.


Image in visual spectrum
Click for a large image

Natural color scheme from the emission of an ionized elements, H-a, S-II and O-III. This is a very dim and diffused nebula, this image spans vertically about one degrees


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, 15 x 1200s = 5h
O-III, 6 x 1200s binned 4x4 = 2h min.
S-II, 6 x 1200s  binned 4x4 = 2h min.
Total 9h
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Thursday, January 21, 2021

Mosaic image gets large, 400 hours and 41 panels


Nine years and over 350 hours of exposures, 41 panels and 31 high resolution sub-panels stitched together seamlessly. This mosaic image spans about 45 x 18 degrees of sky, the original resolution is 14.000 x 41.000 pixels.

Previous version of this mosaic image can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/from-cassiopeia-to-cepheus-eight-years.html

From cassiopeia to Cepheus
Click for a full size image, it's really worth it! (3700 x 1400 pixels)


Image is in mapped colors from a light from the ionized elements, hydrogen = green, sulfur = red and oxygen = blue. NOTE, there is an image of the Moon at the same scale in lower left corner.
The heart and Soul nebulae are at upper left corner and the IC 1396 with the Elephant's Trunk Nebula at center right. There are many well known objects in this massive mosaic image including the Bubble and Cave Nebulae at just a little right from the center. There are about six million stars in this composition.



Orientation
Click for a full size image




Evolution of the mosaic image shot between 2012 - 2021
Click for a full size image


Equipments

I have used several optical configurations for this mosaic image during the years. Up to 2014 I was using an old Meade LX200 GPS 12" scope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and baader narrowband filter set. After 2014 I have had 10-micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and the Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set. I have shot many details with a longer focal length, before 2014 by using Meade 12" scope with reducer and after 2014 Celestron EDGE 11" and reducer. Quider camera has been Lodestar and Lodestar II.


Some reduced size details from the full size mosaic image

Sharpless 132



IC 1396



Supernova remnant CTB1



Sharpless 124


From Bubble to Cave Nebula



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Monday, January 11, 2021

First new photo for the Year 2021

 Between Cygnus and Cepheus, near the constellation Lacerta, locates the Sharpless 124 (Sh2-124) 
This emission nebula is kind of large and has a brighter formation at middle of it. There is some very dim O-III emission too, generally this emission nebula is not  a very easy target for imagers.
There are very few good phoptos of it around.

My wide field setup covers enough sky to capture both, the Cocoon Nebula (Sh2-125) and the Sharpless-124 in a same field of view. Data for the photo was shot at December 2020


Sharpless 124 and the Cocoon Nebula
Click for a large image

Cocoon Nebula can be seen at lower left corner, Sh2-124 at center. Photo in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. (Known as Hubble Palette) 
NOTE, an apparent size of the Moon as a scale


A closeup
Click for a large image

The starfield is very densy in this part of  Milky Way


An older longer focal length photo
Click for a large image




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

Total exposure time
H-alpha, 6 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 3x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1h
S-II, 3x1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1h

H-alpha channel alone (Two hours)
Click for a large image


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Thursday, December 31, 2020

All my photos from year 2020

 
The year 2020 has been interesting since I'm between the scopes at the moment. I converted my old Tokina At-x 300 mm f2.8 camera optics and paired it with the Apogee Alta U16 astro camera.
At first it looked like an impossible task since the back focus distance of Tokina lens was way too short for the camera. After some heavy handed modifications (including an angle grinder) I managed to marry those too junks of metal, glass and silicon together. Kind of Frankenstein's monster but worked!


Tokina 300mm f2.8 and Apogee Alta U16

After many years shooting with a long focal length instrument it was like a fresh air to work with wide field tool. 

All my photos from the year 2020
Click for a full size poster (2000 x 2800 pixels)

NOTE, images are not in scale to each other


There are some very rarely imaged objects in the the poster

Photo 11, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/04/two-ways-to-go-in-same-field-of-view.html

Supernova remnant Sh2-221 and a planetary nebula Sh2-216. There are very few images out of them, I haven't seen any other three band NB images from Sh2-221

43 hours of exposures was needed to reveal targets in full glory. There are very few images out there from Sh2-205 and even less from LBN 696.

Photo 12, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-supernova-remnant-in-cygnus-g65357-snr.html

This is a very large dim and diffused supernova remnant in Cygnus, The dense starfield almost buries faint filament structures. Extremely few photos out there showing the whole SNR.
This SNR is part of the Cygnus mosaic (Image 21).

Photo 21, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/deep-in-to-my-heart-ic-1805-in-mapped.html

A very commonly imaged target but this deep exposure reveals a very dim supernova remnant just above the "Tip of the Heart". SNR can be seen at eight o'clock position in the photo. 


Two massive panorama mosaics

This year I got ready two very large narrowband mosaic images. 
Material for them was collected during past ten years. 
The Great Mosaic of Cygnus covers now the whole constellation.
Second as large mosaic spans sky from Cassiopeia to Cepheus. 
Exposure time for both of then is over 800 Hours.

Cygnus 

https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html

Cassiopeia to Cepheus

https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/from-cassiopeia-to-cepheus-eight-years.html


THE BOOK
At 2020 we published a book about nebulae, "Cosmic Clouds 3D" We =  Brian May, David J Eicher and Me. It was a pleasure to work with talented people. The idea for the book came from Brian may, the legendary Queen guitarist and astrophysicist. At the moment the book is practically sold out.




IMAGE INFO

  1. Sh2-124, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/sharpless-124-sh2-124.html
  2. Sh2--124 wide field
  3. Clouds of Cassiopeia, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cassiopeia-mosaic-gets-larger.html
  4. SNR CTB1, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/02/ctb1-supernova-remnant-in-cassiopeia.html
  5. Simeis 147,  https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-birth-of-venus.html
  6. Tulip nebula area, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-tulip-nebula-in-cygnus-sh2-101.html
  7. Sh2-205, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-rare-image-sharpless-205-and-ngc-1491.html
  8. NGC 1499, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-deep-view-to-california-nebula-in.html
  9. Sh2-132, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-new-photo-of-sharpless-132-sh2-132.html
  10. Sh2-126, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/10/new-photo-sharpless-126-in-lacerta.html
  11. Sh2-216 & 221, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/04/two-ways-to-go-in-same-field-of-view.html
  12. SNR G65.3+5,7,https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-supernova-remnant-in-cygnus-g65357-snr.html
  13. IC 63 & NGC281, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/ic-63-and-ngc-281.html
  14. SNR IC443, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/supernova-remnant-ic-443-wide-field.html
  15. Bubble to Cave, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-bubble-to-cave-nebula-area.html
  16. Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html
  17. Sh2-114, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/sharpless-114-flying-dragon-nebula.html
  18. IC 405 & 410,  https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-photo-deep-in-to-darkness.html
  19. Cederblad 214,https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/02/new-photo-of-cederblad-214-cosmic.html
  20. From CTB1 to Cave,https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-cassiopeia-to-cepheus.html
  21. IC 1805,  https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/deep-in-to-my-heart-ic-1805-in-mapped.html
  22. IC 1396, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/ic-1396-wide-field-reprocessed.html
  23. Cassiopeia to Cepheus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/from-cassiopeia-to-cepheus-eight-years.html
  24. Bubble to cave, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-bubble-to-cave-round-ii.html
  25. Sh2-205 & LBN 696, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-two-frame-mosaic-photo-of-sharpless.html



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