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Wednesday, November 28, 2018

A Giant Squid, Ou4, imaging project finalized


I started this imaging project at this autumn season and after a several months I got it ready!
This is a dimmest target I have shot so far! Total exposure time for the light from an ionized oxygen (O-III) alone was around 35h. Most of the data was shot at binned down to 4x4! For some details I shot about ten hours of 2x2 binned data. H-a is brighter but not bright either. There is about ten hours of H-alpha light exposed. There is very little light from an ionized sulfur, I shot bin 4x4 data about three hours for S-II. Total exposure time used is around 48h

The Celestron Edge 11" telescope with a 0.7 focal reducer has a perfect field of view for this object. This combo delivers a very high quality image from edge to edge. The Apogee U16 can be very challenging to have a good orthogonality and collimation due to very large CCD-shell. 
Ou4, the Giant Squid
Please, 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 large nebula, this image spans horizontally about 1.5 degrees = three full Moons side by side in a sky.


Ou4 in light of an ionized oxygen only
Please, click for a large image

35h of O-III exposures, the Apogee U16 astro camera and Astrodon 3nm O-III filter.
Telescope, Celestron Edge 11"


Wider field of view, Ou4 inside the Sharpless 129
Please, click for a large image

Natural color scheme from the emission of an ionized elements, H-a, S-II and O-III
I have shot the Sharpless 129 nebula, surrounding the Ou4, back at 2013. I combined the new data with the old one and here is the results.

A panoramic view shows the IC 1396, Sh2-129 and Ou4 in same field of view.


Animation


Animated frames, All channels, O-III only  and O-III with no stars.


INFO

The giant Squid Nebula cataloged as Ou4. Nebula was discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula's alluring bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue-green emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. The true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, a recent investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, Ou4 would represent a spectacular outflow driven by HR8119, a triple system of hot, massive stars seen near the center of the nebula. The truly giant Squid Nebula would physically be nearly 50 light-years across.




A single 20 min. calibrated and stretched 4x4 binned O-III exposure 
Please, click for a large image

Image is divided with a bias corrected flat frame and subtracted with master dark. Even after a heavy nonlinear stretching, very little can be seen in this single 20 min. 4x4 binned  light frame.





www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 11:42 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, November 25, 2018

Clouds of Cygnus


I have been using my large 18-panels mosaic image of the Cygnus Nebula Complex as a map to a some rarely imaged dimmer nebulae in that area. The large mosaic photo was taken with a Canon EF 200mm@f1.8 camera lens. I have shot many interesting areas from that photo with much longer focal length instruments. 

Last few years I have been using an excellent telescope for that task, Celestron Edge 11"  reflecting telescope with 0.7 focal reducer. BTW, this is one of the very best focal reducers I have ever been using! Its build like a tank and optical quality is next to nothing. The reducer cost about as much as an good quality refracting telescope but it's worth of every penny. With this reducer my Apogee Alta U16 camera has a spatial resolution of about one arcsecond per pixel. That image scale is pretty much optimal for my imaging purposes.

This time I picked up an interesting looking object from Cygnus Nebula Complex. This emission nebula is a kind of dim target and I was able to dig out some extreme dim emission from the ionized oxygen too (O-III) I haven't seen any pictures focusing to this nameless target so far.


Clouds of Cygnus
Please, click for a large photo

Image is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. The signal from the ionized oxygen (O-III) was very weak.


Visual colors
Please, click for a large photo

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements, R=Hydrogen + Sulphur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + 10% Hydrogen to compensate the missing H-beta emission.


In light of an ionized hydrogen alone (H-alpha)
Click for a large image

H-alpha exposure alone.


Orientation in large context
Click for a large image

he area of interest is marked as a white rectangle.


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
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f10 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 x 2 and SXV-AOL

Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Exposure times

H-alpha, 13 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 4 h
O-III, 6 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 2 h.
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 1 h



www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 10:01 AM 0 comments
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Friday, November 23, 2018

Deep photo of the North America & Pelican Nebula area


While shooting lights for my Giant Cosmic Squid project, I had to wait few hours every night to the Ou4 to be well placed in the sky. I spent those hours to shoot some frames for North America and Pelican Nebula area. I have shot many details from this area , while making my poster about Treasures of the Swan I noticed that there are many overlapping photos. I shot new material for the missing parts and finally, I was able to build a mosaic image of the area!

16-panels are now combined seamlessly to a very high resolution image. Each frame is shot three times, one exposure set for the light emitted by an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha), second set for the light emitted by an ionized sulfur (S-II) and third set for the ionized oxygen. (O-III) Total exposure time used for this image combo is just under 200h! The original resolution is around 16.000 x 16.000 pixels. Frames for this mosaic image are taken between 2014-2018 and  I have published them as an
individual compositions. 


The Grande Mosaic of the North America and Pelican Nebula
Please, click the image to see a large version, it's worth it! (2000x2000 pixels)


A 16-panel mosaic image of the NA & Pelican Nebulae. Mapped colours from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. All photos are shot with a Celestron EDGE 11" reflecting telescope, Apogee Alta U16,a cooled astrocam and the Astrodon narrowband filter set. Photos are shot between the years 2014 and 2018, total exposure time is around 200h.



Details from the image above
Please, click the image to see a large version












Nebula in light from an ionized hydrogen lone (H-alpha)
Please, click the image to see a large version




Orientation
Please, click the image to see a large version

The area of 16-panel mosaic is marked with a white rectangle to this older shot of the area.
Older photo is taken at 2012 with a Tokina AT 300 f2.8 camera lens, QHY9 astrocam and the Baader narrowband filter set.


www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 12:07 PM 0 comments
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Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Sharpless 129 and the Giant Squid



Due to my ongoing imaging project with the Giant Squid nebula (Ou4) I have about 20h of O-III data  to use. I have shot the surrounding nebula, the Sharpless 129, back at 2013. I combined the new data with the old one and here are the results.

The Giant squid and the Sharpless 129
Please, click for a large image

Mapped colours from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.


The IC 1396, Giant squid and Sharpless 129
Please, click for a large image

Mapped colours from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.


The Giant squid and the Sharpless 129 in visual colors
Please, click for a large image

Natural color scheme from the emission of an ionized elements, H-a, S-II and O-III
Data for the old image of Sh2-129 can been HERE



www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 12:48 PM 0 comments
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Tuesday, November 20, 2018

A Giant Squid, Ou4, a start of the new imaging project



I have planned to shoot this very dim nebua for a long time. So far I have collected ~20h of light emitted by an ionized oxygen (O-III). I'll shoot more exposures for this object in near future, if the weather gives any support.

The Celestron Edge 11" telescope with a 0.7 focal reducer has a perfect field of view for this object. This combo delivers a very high quality image from edge to edge. The Apogee U16 can be very challenging to have a good orthogonality and collimation with it, due to very large CCD-shell. 


Ou4 in light of an ionized oxygen only
Please, click for a large image

20h of O-III expoures with the Apogee U16 astro camera and Astrodon 3nm O-III filter.
Telescope, Celestron Edge 11"

An experimental starless version
Please, click for a large image

Only the central star is visible in this experimental starless photo.


This object is dim to extreme

I shit this object at several night between 1. and 18. November. Total 60 frames of 20 min. exposures,
all binned down 4x4. (Total 20h of O-III signal) By this way I can have  16 times more signal  than by using 1x1 binned exposures. I will shoot 1x1 binned high resolution exposures later for stars and some high signal to noise features and details in the area. 

A single 20 min. calibrated and stretched O-III exposure 
Please, click for a large image

Image is divided with a bias corrected flat frame and subtracted with master dark. Even after a heavy nonlinear stretching, very little of O-III signal can be seen in a single light frame.


INFO

Very faint but also very large on planet Earth's sky, a giant Squid Nebula cataloged as Ou4 is composed out of 20 hours of narrowband O-III image data. The telescopic field of view is 1 degrees or 2 Full Moons across. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula's alluring bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue-green emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. The true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, a recent investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, Ou4 would represent a spectacular outflow driven by HR8119, a triple system of hot, massive stars seen near the center of the nebula. The truly giant Squid Nebula would physically be nearly 50 light-years across.

Source, Nasa APOD


The scale in the sky and the orientation in a constellation Cepheus
Please, click for a large image











www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 2:45 PM 2 comments
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Sunday, November 18, 2018

Treasures of the Swan


I made a poster format collection out of my photos from constellation Cygnus, the Swan.
This area of sky is full of wonders, emission nebulae, supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, complex networks of dark nebulae and many other objects and cosmic phenomenon. I think I can spend rest of my life by shooting this nebula complex, it's a source of never ending wonders and visual treasures.


Treasures of Cygnus
Please, click the image to see a large version, it's worth it!
(3300 x 5500 pixels)

A location for each photo is marked at the large mosaic image of constellation Cygnus at center.



Image info


At center of the poster there is a large mosaic image of constellation Cygnus. I publish this 18-panels narrow band mosaic image at 2011.

  1. The Tulip nebula (APOD), https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2014/10/tulip-nebula-finalized-project.html
  2. Clouds of Swan, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/clouds-of-swan.html
  3. The Crescent nebula (APOD), https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/01/ngc-6888-crescent-nebula-reprocessed.html
  4. Dark filaments of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-detail-photo-of-dark-filaments-in.html
  5. The Pelican nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2014/10/first-light-image-for-my-new.html
  6. The Great Wall of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-panoramic-view-to-north-america-nebula.html
  7. Dark Filaments of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/12/dark-filaments-in-cygnus-project.html
  8. NGC 7000 details, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-little-different-view-to-north.html
  9. Sharpless 119, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2017/12/sharpless-119-in-cygnus-project.html
  10. Filaments of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/10/filaments-of-cygnus-project-continues.html
  11. Filaments of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/10/filaments-of-western-cygnus.html
  12. Sharpless 115, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2014/11/sharpless-115-and-planetary-nebula.html
  13. Sharpless 112, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/10/sharpless-112-sh2-112-in-cygnus.html
  14. Filaments of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/11/filaments-of-cygnus.html
  15. The Propeller Nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2014/11/dwb-111-propeller-nebula.html
  16. Cygnus Shell, W63, (APOD)  https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-very-rare-photo-cygnus-shell.html
  17. LBN 251, 239 and IC 1311, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/this-new-photos-shows-lbn-251-and.html
  18. PN PM 1-320, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/11/more-filaments-of-cygnus-and-couple-of.html
  19. LBN 243, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/lbn-243.html
  20. W 134, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2017/11/wr-134-ring-nebula-area-as-mosaic-image.html
  21. The Central Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2017/01/bright-nebulae-of-central-cygnus-eleven.html
  22. Pelican nebula panorama, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/pelican-nebula-panorama.html
  23. Dark Clouds of Cygnus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/dark-clouds-of-cygnus.html
  24. The Great Wall of Cygnus panorama, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/panoramic-photo-of-great-wall-of-cygnus.html




www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 3:31 PM 0 comments
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Saturday, November 17, 2018

Panoramic photo of the Great Wall of Cygnus


My source of endless visual treasures is the constellation Cygnus. Supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, emission nebulae and complex dark nebula networks among the other beautiful objects and cosmic phenomena. I have shot this area of sky for many years and some of my photos are overlapping. I was able to make some new panoramic mosaics out of this overlapping material.


Great Wall of Cygnus as a panoramic view
Please, click for a much large image (2300 x 900 pixels)


Mapped colours from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
There are material from four individual images combined to this panoramic view. All photos are shot with a Celestron EDGE 11" reflecting telescope, Apogee Alta U16,a cooled astrocam and the Astrodon narrowband filter set. Photos are shot between the years 2015 and 2017, total exposure time is around 40h.


Wilder View photo of the area
Please, click for a  large image

The area of the panoramic image is marked as white rectangle. This older photo from 2012 is shot with a Tokina AT/X 300mm f2.8 camera lens, QHY9, a cooled astrocam and the Baader narrowband filter set.





www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 10:58 AM 0 comments
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Friday, November 16, 2018

Dark Clouds of Cygnus



My source of endless visual treasures is the constellation Cygnus. Supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, emission nebulae and complex dark nebula networks among the other beautiful objects and cosmic phenomena.  

I went through my photographic material, I have shot this area of sky for many years and some of my photos are overlapping. I was able to make some new compositions by stitching photos together seamlessly. 


Dark Clouds of Cygnus
Please, click for a large image

Mapped colours from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
There are material from four individual images combined to this composition. All photos are shot with a Celestron EDGE 11" reflecting telescope, Apogee Alta U16,a cooled astrocam and the Astrodon narrowband filter set. Photos are shot between the years 2015 and 2017, total exposure time is around 20h.
Wilder View photo of the NA and Pelican nebula

Please, click for a  large image

The area of the panoramic image is marked as white rectangle. This older photo from 2012 is shot with a Tokina AT/X 300mm f2.8 camera lens, QHY9, a cooled astrocam and the Baader narrowband filter set.





www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 11:55 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, November 15, 2018

Pelican Nebula panorama



My source of endless visual treasures is the constellation Cygnus. Supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, emission nebulae and complex dark nebula networks among the other beautiful objects and cosmic phenomena.  I went through my photographic material from constellation Cygnus, I have shot this area of sky for many years and some of my photos are overlapping. I was able to make some panoramic mosaics out of this overlapping material.


Pelican and North America Nebula panorama
Please, click for a high resolution photo, 1052 x 2258 pixels!


Mapped colours from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
There are material from four individual images combined to this panoramic view. All photos are shot with a Celestron EDGE 11" reflecting telescope, Apogee Alta U16,a cooled astrocam and the Astrodon narrowband filter set. Photos are shot between the years 2015 and 2017, total exposure time is around 30h.


Wilder View photo of the NA and Pelican nebula
Please, click for a  large image

The area of the panoramic image is marked as white rectangle. This older photo from 2012 is shot with a Tokina AT/X 300mm f2.8 camera lens, QHY9, a cooled astrocam and the Baader narrowband filter set.







www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 5:43 PM 0 comments
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Monday, November 5, 2018

Sharpless 157 in Cassiopeia


I originally shot data for this Sharpless catalog object as Spring season 2018. I noticed that, I haven't publish a visual spectrum image out of it yet. So here we go, Sh2-157 in visual spectrum from narrowband channels.The mixture I'm using gives a very realistic color scheme. 

Red color is mixed by emission of an ionized hydrogen and Sulfur, 80% of H-alpha and 20% of S-II.
Green color is from the emission of an ionized oxygen, 100% of O-III
Blue color is mixed from the emission of an ionized oxygen and hydrogen, 85% of O-III and 15% of H-alpha. (The emission of an ionized hydrogen is added to compensate other wise missing H-beta emission.)

A mapped color version can be seen here:


A two frame mosaic of the Sharpless 157 (Sh2-157)
Please, click for a large image


Natural color scheme from the emission of an ionized elements, H-a, S-II and O-III
The photo width is about one degree of sky. (The full Moon covers about 0,5 degrees of the sky.)


An experimental starless version
Please, click for a large image


Details of the actual nebula stands out better in this experimental starless version.



A close up
Please, click for a large image




INFO

Sharpless 157

The night sky between the constellations Cassiopeia and Cepheus is rich with nebulae and star clusters. The nebulae visible in this image include Sharpless 157 and Lynd’s Bright Nebula 537. The star clusters include Markarian 50 and NGC 7510. The planetary Nebula PLN 110-0.1 (WeSb) can be seen at lower left.

Sharpless 157 is sometimes referred to as the Lobster Claw Nebula for obvious reasons. The bright spot at upper left quarter of this photo is Lynd’s Bright Nebula (LBN) 537. Also designated at Sh 2 – 157a, it is a ring nebula around the Wolf-Rayet star WR 157.

At the lower right quarter of the image lays open star cluster NGC 7510.


With labels
Please, click for a large image




An older wide field photo of the area
Please, click for a large image


The area of a new photo is marked as a white rectangle. The Bubble nebula can be seen as a bluish pearl, just half a degree North West from the Sharpless 157. 
This photo is shot at 2007 with a QHY 8, a cooled astro camera and the Baader narrowband filter set, H-a, S-II and O-III. Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens @ f2.8


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 @ f10 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 x 2 and SXV-AOL

Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Exposure times

H-alpha, 24 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 8 h
O-III, 10 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 3 h 20 min.
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 3 h
Total 14 h 20 min

A single uncropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. exposures as they come out from the camera.

H-alpha




S-II




O-III





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