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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Dark dust in Cygnus, project finalized







Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
This beautiful area is just bellow the North America and Pelican Nebulae.  The bright area at upper middle Right, is known as IC 5068. 
I selected this as a target, since there is a beautiful dark dust line blocking light at front of the ionization zone and the area is not too commonly imaged. You can see the image in just Ha-light and an image about the relative location in my previous blog post.


Area of interest, just bellow NGC7000, can be seen in this image as a gray scale rectangle.



HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.



A 100% crop from the image to show the resolution.


An experimental starless image to show the nebula better.




Technical problems are still driving me nuts... I had to operate nearly everything manually, since my TCF-s focuser and the filter wheel are out of order. Focusing at f2.8 is not an easy task, the critical focus zone is just about 15/1000mm. I had to refocus between the frames, since temperature dropped during the night and I didn't have my temp. compensating focuser operational.

Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations,
added in about 50% weight.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8
Camera, QHY9 , a cooled astronomical camera
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS and the Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~3,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures H-alpha 19x1200s, binned 1x1
O-III 8x1200s, binned 2x2
S-II 6x1200s, binned 2x2
Total exposure time ~12h


Friday, October 14, 2011

Dark dust of Cygnus in H-alpha light, a new project




Image from two previous nights has now 17x1200s H-alpha light collected.
I will shoot other two emission lines as soon as the weather permits.

This area is just below  the "North America and Pelican Nebulae". The bright area at upper middle Right, is  known as IC 5068. I selected this as a target, since there is a beautiful dark dust line blocking light at front of the ionization zone.
Area of interest can be seen in this image as a gray scale rectangle.

This has been a very frustrating Autumn... 
First my observatory PC died. After installing a new computer and all the software, my camera stopped to work. (I'm shooting now with an older model, fixed by soldering and duct tape) 
Two days ago, the filter wheel started to act like a lottery machine, now I have to rotate it manually.
Top of that, last night my trusted temperature compensating focuser, TCF-s, refused to work at all. 
After five hours of trying to fix it, I did focus manually as well as I could. (At f2.8, the critical focus zone is 17 microns... that's 17/1000mm) Lots of work is done and money spend, just for couple of images. Sometimes I feel, best solution is quit and sell my gears, who ever going to buy this expensive pile of junk. Maybe I feel better tomorrow, after some sleep...

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 in final image.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens at f2.8
Camera, QHY9 
Guiding, Lodestar and Meade LX200 GPS 12"
Image Scale, 3,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures H-alpha 19x1200s, binned 1x1
Total exposure time so far 6h 20min.




Thursday, October 13, 2011

Astro anarchy gets published







My image of the "Wizard Nebula", NGC 7380, get published in the Discovery Magazine
In October 2011 issue, there is an article about multiverse, and they did use my image with it. Images can be found from a table of content , page 2, and in the story, page 31.

This is the used image. Original blog post, with a technical details, can be found HERE.





Wednesday, October 12, 2011

An image, just for a fun...



Click for a large image.

This is a computer generated image, I don't have a wall full of my images.
I used older frames and wallpaper since some of my images loos like old oil paintings.


Ps.
Photographic prints from my images can be bought from my portfolio:
Just click an image and there will be a list of sizes and prices at Right, like bellow.
A4 print,     15€
A3 print,     21€
20" x 16",   31€  (50 x 41 cm)
30" x 20",   49,95€  (76 x 50 cm)
Many other sizes and shapes are available too.
NOTE. Prints are real photographs in Fujicolor paper. 
If you don't like to buy online, just leave me a message at my e-mail:
astroanarchy@gmail.com and I will take care of rest.

sama suomeksi

Valokuvavedoksia kuvistani voi ostaa portfoliostani:
Klikkaa kuvaa niin sen oikealle puolelle avautuu koko ja hintalista, kuten alla.
A4 print,     15€
A3 print,     21€
20" x 16",   31€  (50 x 41 cm)
30" x 20",   49,95€  (76 x 50 cm)

Monia muita kokoja ja muotoja on myös saatavilla.
HUOM. Kuvat ovat oikeita valokuvia Fujicolor valokuvapaperille.
Jos et halua käyttää verkkokauppaa, niin jätä minulle viesti osoitteeseen:
astroanarchy@gmail.com , niin hoidan tilauksen puolestasi.