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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Cat's Eye Nebula reprocessed





Since my processing technique gets better and weather doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.

NGC 6543, the "Cat's Eye Nebula"
Ra  17h 58m 33 Dec +66° 37′ 59"






Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.

In this image the rarely imaged outer shell is visible. This was very difficult to process, due the massive brightness difference between the core and the outer parts.

The Cat's Eye Nebula, NGC 6543, Cladwell 6, is a planetary nebula in constellation Drago.

Distance is about 3300 light years.

More information in Wikipedia:




Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.

Image is shot with a QHY9 and the Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5, pixel scale 0.65pixels/arc second.
Original versions from November 2008, with technical details:


Just the Eye part of the nebula, enlarged 400% from my image.

There is a hint of co centric circles visible around the nebula.
Faint rings are spherical shells ejected by the central star in the distant past. The exact mechanism of ejections is unclear. Image is in HST-palette.





Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sh2-101, the "Tulip Nebula" closeup as a Stereo Pair 3D






Parallel vision 3D



Cross vision 3D


Original 2D:



NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.


Sh2-101, the "Tulip Nebula" closeup as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D





You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see this image right.
Note, if you have a Red and Blue filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.






NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.

Monday, January 24, 2011

NGC 6888, the "Crescent Nebula" wide field reprocessed




Since my processing technique gets better and weather doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.


NGC 6888 as a wide field image
Ra  20h 12m 7 Dec +38° 21′ 3"




Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.

The Crescent Nebula, also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27 and Sharpless 105, is an emission nebula in constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light years distance. 
It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136 (HD 192163), colliding to an slower moving wind ejected by the same star when it became a red giant, around 400.000 years ago.
The result of the collision is a glowing shock shell around the star. Apparen size of the shell is 18' x 12' and the real size is about 25 x 16 light years. 
This image covers about three degrees horizontally. (Area of six full Moons side by side) 


Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.

Image is shot with a QHY8 and the Tokina AT 300mm f2.8 lens at full aperture.
Original versions from November 2008, with technical details:


A closeup image of the Crescent Nebula

This image is shot with a much longer focal length, about 2000mm, with a Meade LX200 GPS 12", Baader narrowband filters and a QHY9 astronomical camera. Image is in HST-palette.