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Monday, February 6, 2012

Sharpless 145, a dim and large nebula in Cepheus




Sh2-145, a large Nebula in constellation Cepheus
RA 22h 28m 44s  DE +64 08' 51" 




A bicolor composition from H-a and O-III

At night of 03.Feb, I was looking some targets in Cepheus. This area took my attention and I gave it whole night. I haven't been able to find any name for it from my sources. I's large, image spans 5,5 degrees horizontally, and dim. I shot it, with Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and QHY9 astronomical camera, five hours for H-a and two hours for O-III (binned down 3x3), camera was full open at f1.8. 
The "bright", mag 6,29, star, at Left middle, is known as HR 8568, location is RA 22h 28m 44s DE +64 08' 51" 
UPDATE
Thanks to "Never", in a Finnish astronomical forum "Avaruus",  all the objects are now identified!
The bright patch at top is Sh2-150. Formation at the middle is Sh2-145 and a bright spot, at lower Right, is Sh2-140. Star cluster Pismis-Monreo 1 locates inside of Sh2-140.


Orientation map




H-alpha channel



A bicolor closeup





Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 15x1200s 
O-III, binned down 3x3 2h. total exposure time 7 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.




Sunday, February 5, 2012

Sharpless 205, Sh2-205




Sh2-205
At border of  Perseus and Camelopardalis

Image in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen. 
Click for a large image!

This Sharpless object is very dim and difficult to shoot (as they usually are). The bright, peanut shape, area at middle is known as Sh2-205, bright nebula, at top left, is NGC 1491. Image spans about 5,5 degrees horizontally, that's 11 full Moons side by side. There are very few images around out of this object. Total exposure time, with a fast 200mm f1.8 optics, is 12h from three nights between 28.01 - 02.02. 2012.


A closeup


Image in visual spectrum

Narrow band channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and 
B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.



Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 12x1800s + 15x1200s = 11h
O-III, binned down 3x3 1h. total exposure time12 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.

Monday, January 30, 2012

"What?" Project finalized



"?"


Image in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen. 
North is Right. Click for a large image!

I shot data for ionized Sulfur and Oxygen last night and now I can compose a three channel RGB-image.
This cosmic question mark, in constellation Cepheus, contains following objects; At top, Cederblad 214(Ced 214) surrounded by NGC 7822, a dot like nebula at the bottom is known as Sharpless 170,(Sh2-170). Image spans over Five degrees vertically. Distance from my observatory, is ~2750 light years and it spans about 40 light years.

Total exposure time is about 9h with an ultra fast Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the QHY9 astronomical camera.

EDIT.

This image get selected as a Space Picture of the Week by the National Geographic magazine. 
You can see the story HERE




Couple of closeups to show the resolution
Not bad for a 200mm camera lens





A natural color composition
From emission of ionized elements

Narrow band channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and 
B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. North is Right.
Note! 
A gray circle, at top Right, shows the apparent size of the full Moon.
(Moon has an angular size of 30', that's 0,5 degrees)


Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 13x1200s + 10x900s = 7h
O-III 1h and S-II 1h, total 9 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.




Sunday, January 29, 2012

What?


"?"

A gray scale image of the Hydrogen alpha emission line. Click for a large image!

For a long time we have had clear weather, freezing too. I have spent couple of night shooting some new material. This cosmic question mark, in constellation Cepheus, contains following objects; At top, Cederblad 214 (Ced 214) surrounded by NGC 7822, a dot like nebula at the bottom is known as Sharpless 170,(Sh2-170).  Image spans about three and half degrees vertically. 

Total exposure time is about 7h with an ultra fast Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the QHY9 astronomical camera. I'll shoot other channels, emission of Oxygen and Sulfur, later, for a color image.


Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~4,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 13x1200s + 10x900s
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.