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Monday, December 20, 2021

Cygnus mosaic gets large

 Three Musketeers of Swan 
Deepest and most detailed image showing the whole constellation Cygnus ever taken

The new composition is made so that the veil nebula supernova remnant fits to the field of view.
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. Least 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 previous version  of this mosaic can be seen here, Great Mosaic of Cygnus  

Bang, bang & bang
Three large supernova remnants in the same field of view
Click for a large image

This is a large area of sky, it spans 31 x 23 degrees of sky. Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.  



ZOOMABLE VERSION

Image is reduced to 6000 x 7700 pixels size from the original 20.000 x 25.500 pixels.


118 Mosaic Panels
Click for a large image

All the 112 frames used are shown in this image. Since many of the frames are originally shot as independent artworks, panel structure is very complex. Also different instruments has a different field of view and resolution, so mosaic panels are at three different size.   


DETAILS
Click for a large image


Three large supernova remnants in constellation Cygnus, the Swan, are in image as colored circles
NOTE, there is an apparent size of the Moon as a scale at lower right corner in a grayscale image.



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, it's marked in small closeup image of the Tulip Nebula 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.

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.

Monday, December 13, 2021

The Pelican Nebula with new data

 I originally publish this nebula image at December 2016. After that, I have shot some very high resolution material from the same area of sky and I decided to upgrade my old image with better data. I'm kind of happy with the result, especially the details in dark nebulae are much sharper now and shows the complex structures of unionized gas and dust. Main reason is the long exposure time used, for H-alpha alone, there are 30 hours of exposures. Total exposure time is around 60 hours.

The dark nebula in the upper part of the photo is the gas bridge splitting visually the Pelican Nebula and the North America nebula so  that the they look like two separate nebula. In reality they are actually a one large emission area.

Pelican Nebula, constellation Cygnus, the Swan
Click for a large image

Image is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. 
The older version of this image can be seen here: https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/12/pelican-nebula-two-frame-mosaic.html


Zoomable Image




Orientation in large context

The North America Nebula can be seen at upper part of the image




Wednesday, November 24, 2021

The Great Wall of Cygnus

 Due to very cloudy weather I have remade some of my older photos, this time the Cygnus Wall has been remade. This is a combination of several older images from 2008, 2010 and 2014. Two different longer focal length telescope was used, The Meade LX200 GPS 12" and Celestron Edge 11". Beside long focal length images material from shorter focal length optics was used from the Canon EF 200mm f1,8 and Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera optics. Older material was taken with the QHY9 astro camera and after 2014 Apogee Alta U16 camera was used. Total exposure time is around 30 hours.

The Great Wall of Cygnus
Click for a large image 


Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen.


 Wider field
Click for a large image 




Zoomable Photo




Info about imaging technique

I have used my new processing/imaging technique VARES for this new composition (VAriable Resolution Imaging) It's really powerful toolset when data from very different focal lengths are combined to a single high resolution image. The principle is that the high signal/noise elements are from the long focal length instruments and the low signal/noise data from the short focal length optics is used to boost relatively featureless and very dim image elements. 


Orientation in North America and Pelican nebula complex



Wednesday, November 10, 2021

NIGHT FEVER, exhibition in Helsinki 14.10 - 04-12. 2021


NIGHT FEVER
THE PLATFORM GALLERY

Lapinlahdenkatu 16 C, 00180 Helsinki 


The exhibition will be open in the the evenings to highlight the

beauty and mystique of the cosmos.

Opening hours

Wed - Fri: 5pm to 9pm
Sat: 2pm to 8pm

We are also open on select Sundays and Holidays and
outside opening hours by appointment

This photograph of Melotte 15 star cluster in Cassiopeia can be seen in exhibition as a museum quality print on dibond-aluminium at size 120 x 97 cm.