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Saturday, September 28, 2024

NEW SETUP FOR MY ASTRONOMICAL NATURE IMAGING WORK

 I haven't publish much new images in past two three years since I have had some health problems. Now I'm good as new and can start working again. Past two years I have been slowly building a new imaging platform. I have done some shorter focal length work past six years, now it's time to go closer again.


OPTICS

System is build around Celestron EDGE 14" telescope, I selected this scope due to its light gathering capacity, 356mm diameter and 3910mm native focal length (This very large and heavy 0.7 Reducer is especially made for the EDGE 14") One main difference to normal Celestron EDGE telescope is that I have added a secondary mirror focuser (by Optec)  to get rid of a mirror flop. It can be a problem, especially with a heavy mirror. Bottom line,  this scope has an excellent optical quality. There is some optical analysis and a single full scale 20min frame at end of this post.

In future I can add a "HyperStar system" to replace secondary mirror and use this telescope as a fast f2 astrograph. 


Secondary mirror focuser, Note a curved vane for the flat power/data cable, no diffraction spikes!
The focuser is made all aluminium, it's really robust and easy to collimate.



MOUNT

I ended up to a MESU Mount MARK II since it has 100kg capacity at imaging work with a periodic error less than 4 arcseconds peak-to-peak, impressive numbers indeed. It also has zero lash back due to its friction drive system. One of the nice features is the 80mm diameter channel for all of the cords, trough the Ra and Dec axes, no more dragging cords!

The pillar I ordered with the mount is bended knee pillar type, no meridian flip is needed and telescope can track whole sky without stopping. The pillar came in easy to handle parts and assembly was very straight forward, the assembled pillar is very rigid under the weight of heavy telescope, counter weights and accessories. 

Mesu mount is absolute beautiful engineering work. Support from manufacture is also very good. I had some minor problems with settings at first but they get solved in no time after we went it trough with remote connection, while on site. Bottom line, money wise this mount is a real bargain, if compared its features to any other brand or model of mount.

Bended Knee Pillar angle at my location 65 degree North. 
Counter weights are stainless steal weight lifting weights. (~35kg)

The 14" Telescope barely fits to my SkyShed POD



CAMERA AND ACCESSORIES


CAMERA

The Main camera is a "new" Apogee Alta U9000M with Apogee Filter wheel. It's a second hand camera originally used for the microscopic work and it looks like a bran new, There wasn't any mechanical shutter but I moved a shutter from my old Apogee Alta U16 to this new camera. (My old camera died to an old age)
The camera has 12 micron pixels, it's a perfect match to this optical configuration giving an image scale of 0.91 arcseconds per pixel. The full image spans 46.1 x 46.1 arcminutes of sky. (One degree is 60 arcminutes and Full Moon spans around 30 arcminutes of sky)

INSTRUMENT ROTATOR

At first time I have added an instrument rotator to the imaging path. I haven't use any rotator earlier since there is always some flexure. 

The Wanderer Astro Rotator Pro has absolute zero flexure by the manufacture. I was very skeptical to this since if it moves, it will flex. It turned out, that there is a patented system based on neodymium magnets around the light path holding everything tightly together when rotator moves.  

After measuring carefully everything with the CCD-inspector software from test exposures under the starfield I can say, it really has no flexures at all. It's only 18 mm thick and fit to my limited back focus nicely. The rotator can handle flawlessly all the heavy load I have placed behind it.

ACTIVE OPTIC UNIT

Maybe an overkill but I have added an active optics unit to the light path. It's SXV-AO from Starlight Xpress UK.

I have had really good experiences doing long focal length imaging with AO unit during the years. It doesn't correct the actual seeing so much but it corrects every small or big error from heat bubbles and vibrations from heavy traffic, wind, etc. and it does that really really fast. 

It's as easy to use as any OAG, especially after I had an instrument rotator. With 14" scope, I can guide around 10 HZ by using mag 11 guide star. The MESU Mount is really good but there is lots of mass to move when guiding corrections are made. With AO there is just a small refracting glass element to move instead of telescope and heavy accessories.

DATA & POWER BOX

An other new accessory is power and data box from Wanderer Astro. It makes the system less chaotic with all the data and power cords. Also controlling power and data connections can be done remotely in one software. It can handle nearly 20 amp at peak power.

DEW BUSTER

There is also my old Dew Buster installed to the telescope. it can keep the temperature just little over the dew point, this prevent the heat current. Raising warm air inside the tube will ruin the image, if heater is even slightly too warm.

FAN

I added a 70 mm computer fan to the telescopes air went to reduce the cool down time. There is an air filter in the went to prevent the dust getting inside the OTA. I can control the fan speed by the Power Box software.

QHY POLEMASTER

This is a new addition too, I was amazed how easy it was to use. Polar align took maybe 15 min and it's easy to redo at any time needed. here is a REVIEW about this little helper,



Telescope elements labeled


QHY Polemaster, lens cover removed and ready for the action.


LENS COVER

As a last item here is a lens cover for Celestron EDGE 14" telescope. It's a simple and a must accessory to prevent dust in the collector lens. How ever, in my case there is a secondary mirror focuser sticking out and it prevents to use the standard Celestron aluminium cover over the telescope. 

I solved the problem by cutting a circular hole in the lens cover. After that, I bought a steel bowl from local market ( it was just 5 € or about 5 $)  I sprayed it matt black and glued it to the cover with an elastic, rubber like, superglue. 

A steel bowl glued over the hole in the lens cover.



AN UPDATE, 09.10.2024,
THE FIRST LIGHT IMAGE
Click for a full size image, ~2000x2000 pixels

All the technical details and more image material of the first light photo can be found in this Blog Post:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2024/10/first-light-for-my-new-imaging-setup.html


OPTICAL ANALYSIS FROM THE CCDINSPECTOR APP


The optical collimation is as good as I get it in my seeing conditions and the optical tube hold it perfectly since the main mirror is always locked down and focusing is done with the Optec Secondary Mirror Focuser only.




This is a 3D-plot of field curvature from the CCDInspector app of Celestron Edge 14" with 0.7 Focal Reducer and Apogee Alta U9000M with 12 micron pixels. This configuration produce a very flat field and stars are sharp from edge to edge in the whole field. This is impressive especially since the CCD in Alta U9000M is so large, about 37x37mm. 

A single full scale 20 min O-III exposure used for the optical analysis

This is one of the test shots after the collimation procedure. Exposure time is 1200s with 3nm O-III filter. Image is calibrated with Dark Frame and Bias corrected Flat Frame. Target is WR 134 in Cygnus. Stars are pinpoint from corner to corner. There is no stretching done, Click for a full scale image.






www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 4:38 PM 2 comments
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Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Grand Mosaic of the Milky Way is now large than ever


Last spring, I published a large mosaic photo of the Milky Way, and it went viral!
You can read a blog post about it here: Gigapixel Mosaic of the Milky Way.

Now, I have an even larger version of the mosaic, spanning an impressive 145 degrees of sky—from Orion to Cygnus. The previous version covered 120 degrees.
This new panorama was published today for the first time in the world by the Finnish Tähdet ja Avaruus magazine.



The Grand Mosaic of the Milky Way Galaxy II

This is the only photograph in the world that captures the Northern Milky Way with such incredible depth and detail—and now, it’s larger than ever!

Click for a large image, 7000 x 1150 pixels

Over a decade of work, 1500 hours of exposure, and 301 individual frames—all captured in a single image. Note: An image of the Full Moon is included in the lower left corner for scale.



NEW! ZOOMABLE IMAGE
23.000 x 3500 pixels


You can now pan and zoom around the large image!

For better accessibility and to save bandwidth, the photo size has been reduced to 40,000 × 6,000 pixels from the original 120,000 × 18,000 pixels.

Note: All material on this blog is copyrighted. Any use without the author's permission is strictly prohibited.





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IMAGE SPECS
  • Panorama spans 145 x 22 degrees of sky (Full Moon covers 0,5 degrees of sky)
  • Resolution 120.000 x 18.000 pixels
  • Photos has 2.2 gigapixels in it, the spatial resolution is equal to 8.8 gigapixel image from color camera since all the channels are in native resolution.
  • There are least nine confirmed supernova remnants in this panorama
  • About 25 million stars are visible in the photo
  • Distance to the nebulae in the image between 350 to 20.000 light years
  • Exposure time over 1500 hours between 2009 - 2021
  • 301 individual images are stitched together seamlessly 
  • It took about 12 years to finalize this photo
  • Narrowband image from light of ionized elements,    hydrogen = green, sulfur = red and oxygen = blue
  • Processing time for the whole panorama, way too large part of my life


ORIENTATION

Click for a large image

The high-resolution panoramic photo spans 145 degrees of the Northern milky way



CLOSEUP SERIES
Click for the large images, it's worth it!

A zoom in series from upper left of the large panorama image above to gives an idea about the overall resolution of the large mosaic image.


All the dots are stars, not the noise!


Closeup of the supernova remnant IC 443



DETAILS

Click for a large image, 5000 x 1500 pixels

There are several very dim and practically unimaged supernova remnants in this panorama.
NOTE, all material in this blog is under copyright, any kind of usage without authors permission is forbidden.


NEW! ZOOMABLE IMAGE

11500 x 3400 pixels




WHY?



The reason I continue this slow and meticulous work is simple: endless curiosity. I love revealing the true wonder of our universe, showing just how extraordinary our world really is. Every time I look through my camera, I am in awe of what I see, and capturing that beauty is my purpose as an artist. For the past 25 years, I have been driven by the need to fulfill my passion.

This image showcases a vast section of the Northern Milky Way in high resolution. Beyond its sheer size, it reaches incredible depths, revealing exceptionally faint and previously uncharted nebulae across the galactic plane. One of the main motivations behind this massive panorama project was the simple fact that an image like this did not exist anywhere in the world. I needed a photo like this—a map to guide my future explorations.

Unveiling the hidden beauty of our universe is my passion. I stand in rapt adoration before everything I capture. When art meets science, the results can be truly mind-blowing.



HOW?



Step 1, 

PLANNING

Astrophotography is an incredibly time-intensive process. To create a color image, I must capture each target at least three times, using different filters to obtain the necessary color channels. Additionally, exposure times can be extremely long—some of the faintest objects require hundreds of hours of exposure. On average, each image in this project took around 25 hours to complete. Every step must be carefully pre-planned to achieve the best results.

I began planning this project over a decade ago, jotting down my first ideas in a small black Moleskine notebook. Even then, I knew it would take ten years to complete—but that never discouraged me. I love long-term projects; they provide both purpose and a goal, driving my work as an artist.


My little black notebook and first plans for the project at 2008

A notebook page opening from Autumn 2008



I had to develop many new working methods to successfully manage this massive project. These methods had to be perfected before starting, because once the project was underway, any major changes would have required canceling it entirely.

Every detail had to be precisely planned—from the composition and its alignment with Milky Way structures to numerous technical aspects, such as handling data from different optical systems with varying spatial resolutions.

I won’t go too deep into the technical details, as the complex techniques involved are simply tools—a means to create my art.



A notebook pages from 2009



I like to compare my long imaging projects to a relationship. But in this case, it wasn’t just between two entities—it was like being in a relationship with an entire family, a large and complex clan. Just like in a family, there might be a difficult uncle or some other challenging personalities, but you have to learn to work with them. I felt the same way while stitching together the pieces of this mosaic. Some frames simply didn’t fit the way I wanted, forcing me to reshoot them, which often took months or even years. But in the end, everything came together seamlessly, without any visible gaps.

I am a perfectionist when it comes to my photography. While this trait is essential for achieving great results, it can also be a challenge. This photo could have been finished five years earlier if I had been willing to leave out some of the extremely faint targets or settle for less detail—but I simply couldn’t.

Yet, when the image was finally complete, I didn’t think about all those sleepless, freezing nights. Instead, I remembered the pure joy I felt when the most challenging parts finally came together.



Step 2, 

COLLECTING THE MATERIAL 

2009 - 2021


NOTE

Each photo in the posters is a slow and complex battle of its own

Click for a large image



 
Some of my individual photos shot between 2009 and 2021 are collected here. Most of them are now part of the Large Mosaic Image of the Milky Way galaxy.
NOTE, all material in this blog is under copyright, any kind of usage without authors permission is forbidden.


Step 3, 

2019 -2021, SOLVING THE BIG PUZZLE



Finally, in 2019, after so many years of work, I had gathered enough material to begin assembling the final mosaic image. The process took nearly two years due to the complex structure of the mosaic and the sheer volume of image data.

At the same time, I also had to capture additional missing material to complete the mosaic, making the process even more time-consuming. But every piece was essential to ensure the final image was as detailed and seamless as possible

I used the Cartes du Ciel, a star map software, for planning and a preliminary fit the individual frames.








EVOLUTION OF THE LARGE MOSAIC

BETWEEN 2009-2021

Click for a large image

This image collection show the evolution of my Large Mosaic of the Milky Way Galaxy.


Step 4,
 

ALL THE PIECES OF A 

 COSMIC PUZZLE CONNECTED

Click for a large image

The final photo is over 120 000 pixels wide and it has 301 individual mosaic panel. Most of the objects are originally shot as a self-standing artworks, due to that, they are in various positions and angles to each other. This is the reason, why the final mosaic structure looks so complicated, as can be seen in this image.

AND FINALLY

At October 2021, after 12 years, 1500 hours of exposures and countless hours of work

The Grand Mosaic of the Milky Way Galaxy II

Click for a full size image, 7000 x 4300 pixels
NOTE, all material in this blog is under copyright, any kind of usage without authors permission is forbidden.


Reaching the final piece of a puzzle is always a thrilling moment. Many of us know the frustration of realizing that a crucial piece is missing—and that happened to me too.

I was certain I had captured that particular section three years ago, yet no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find it on any of my hard drives. As a result, I had to endure several painfully long weeks waiting for the right conditions to reshoot the missing piece. Only then could I finally complete this massive cosmic puzzle.


The Mosaic Work, technical info

Optical Configurations

Over the years, I have used several optical setups to capture this mosaic.

  • Up until 2014, I worked with a Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope, a QHY9 astro camera, Canon EF 200mm f/1.8 optics, and a Baader narrowband filter set.
  • Since 2014, I have used a 10Micron 1000 equatorial mount, an Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, a Tokina AT-X 200mm f/2.8 lens, and an Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set.

I have also captured many high-resolution details using longer focal lengths:

  • Before 2014: Meade 12" telescope with a reducer
  • After 2014: Celestron EDGE 11" with a reducer
  • Guide cameras: Lodestar and later Lodestar II

I chose my current setup as the base tool for this project because it offers a high resolution combined with an exceptionally large field of view. Additionally, it collects photons very efficiently due to being undersampled, allowing extremely faint background nebulosity to become visible in a relatively short exposure time—often, a 30-minute frame is sufficient.

Mosaic Processing

I assemble all my mosaic images in Photoshop. Aligning the individual panels using stars as reference points is fairly straightforward. Over the years, my processing workflow has become so consistent that only minor adjustments—such as small tweaks to levels, curves, and color balance—are needed between frames.

To enhance details, I have incorporated many high-resolution subframes into the mosaic (see the mosaic map at the top of the page). To seamlessly integrate longer focal length images with shorter focal length data, I developed a custom method:

  1. Upscale the short focal length frames by ~25% to provide more room for high-resolution data.
  2. Match the high-resolution image to the mosaic, using stars as reference points.
  3. Remove all tiny stars from the high-resolution image to prevent optical distortions.
  4. Separate the stars from the low-resolution image and blend the starless high-resolution data with the starless low-resolution frame.
  5. Reintroduce the removed low-resolution stars on top of everything—ensuring zero data loss and maintaining a uniform star field across the entire mosaic.

This method eliminates optical distortions, which are especially noticeable in dense star fields. Since all stars in the final image originate from the same optical setup, I avoid inconsistencies. I use the same star removal technique as in my Tone Mapping Workflow to achieve this seamless integration.




www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 10:13 AM 5 comments

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Milky Way, 12 years, 1250 hours of exposures and 125 x 22 degrees of sky



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."


The final photo is about 100 000 pixels wide, it has 234 individual mosaic panels stitched together and 1,7 gigapixels. (Click for a large image) All the frames used are marked in this image. Since many of sub-images and mosaics are independent artworks it leads to a very complex mosaic structure. 


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
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.



Orientation and details
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!

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.) 


The Mosaic Work, technical info

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.

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

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,

A closeup from the main image shows the Sharpless 124 at up and the Cocoon nebula with a dark gas stream at bottom.

Image details, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/ic-1396-wide-field-reprocessed.html

From Bubble to Cave Nebula
Image info, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-bubble-to-cave-nebula-area.html

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 supernova remnant G65.3+5.7

My Observatory,


Not an igloo, this is reality of astro photographing in Finland


www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 11:53 PM 167 comments
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