Thursday, March 15, 2012
Supernova remnant IC 443
This image might be the last image for the Spring season 2012. We'll be out of astronomical darkness at 08.04.2012 and nights are getting shorter very fast. I will try to enlarge this image with one panel, to show the nearby NGC 2175 (Sh2-252), the "Monkey Head Nebula"
IC 443
A supernova remnant in constellation Gemini
Note. A largish image, about 2 meg and 1600 x 1200 pixels.
A closeup
Note. No sharpening or star reduction used, just a perfect focus is maintained.
A closeup
Note. No sharpening or star reduction used, just a perfect focus is maintained.
IC 443, also known as Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248) or the "Jellyfish Nebula", is a supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini at distance of about 5000 light years. The actual size of the SNR is roughly 70 light years. This image spans about 5 degrees of sky. (Ten Moons side by side in the sky.)
At top Right lays an open group, Messier 35.
At bottom Right, the Sharpless object 247, Sh2-247, can be seen as a bright dot.
Image is in visual spectrum from narrowband channels.
Older versions
Older version, shot with Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 lens and QHY9 at February 2009, can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2009/02/ic443-in-hst-palette.html Colors in this new image are partly borrowed from this older one.
A study about the apparent scale in the sky can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/07/ic-443-snr-scale-in-sky-zoom-in-series.html
A closeup in HST-palette. Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope at f5, QHY9 cooled astronomical camera and Baader narrowband filter set. Total exposure time ~12h. Original blog post and details:
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color 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 arc-seconds/pixel
Only four 1200s exposures for H-alpha emission.
Other channels, O-III and S-II, are from an older image of mine.
(Link above, under "Older versions")
Thursday, March 8, 2012
The Auriga panorama gets bigger, 12 panels now
As usually, things easily gets out of my hands...
This time I shot eight new mosaic frames for Auriga image, total frames are now 12.
This panoramic mosaic spans about 21 degrees of sky. That's 42 full Moons side by side.)
I combined older long exposure images from Simeis 147 and Sharpless objects 224 and 225 to this new data.
Total exposure time, with an older data, is now about 70 hours together.
12 panel mosaic of Auriga
21 degrees of sky
21 degrees of sky
HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Note. Large image 2200 pixels wide and ~3MB. Original resolution about 15000 x 9000 pixels.
Image in visual spectrum
Note. There is a small circle at lower Left corner. It show the angular size of the full Moon in the sky.
(Apparent size of the full Moon is 30', or 0,5 degrees)
A composition from the central parts of mosaic
Note. Large image 2200 pixels wide and ~3MB. Original resolution about 15000 x 9000 pixels.
Note. There is a small circle at lower Left corner. It show the angular size of the full Moon in the sky.
(Apparent size of the full Moon is 30', or 0,5 degrees)
Images above are more informative, than beautiful, I think.
There are some rarely imaged objects, like Sharpless supernova remnants Sh2 224, 225 and 240 (Simeis 147). At middle there are several open clusters and Sharpless objects. (Look for an attached map at end of this page.) Outer parts of IC 405 and 410 Nebula complex are seen too. There is an interesting looking loop of gas at the Left end of the complex.
A composition from the central parts of mosaic
I made a cropped image out of this panorama. I think, it's more visually pleasing.
HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Eight panels are used for this mosaic image. Original resolution about 9000 x 7000 pixels.
Previous version, a four panel mosaic
Original resolution about 7000 x 5000 pixels.
Original resolution about 7000 x 5000 pixels.
Blog post, with technical detail, can be seen here:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2012/03/four-panel-panoramic-mosaic-of-auriga.html
Detail images from the mosaic,
to show the resolution, click for large version
NOTE
No sharpening or star reducing methods are used!
Mosaic image is build around this one frame image, original blog post, with technical details, can be seen here:
Messier 38 at middle of the large image
A closeup of IC 410
Sharpless 232
Sharpless 224
Image, with technical data, can be seen here:
A map
Image is implemented in a map from Cartes du Ciel
An animation
This experimental GIF-animation shows the image without stars and
the actual nebula complex is better seen.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
A four panel panoramic mosaic of Auriga, IC 405 & 410
This image shows a wider field view to Auriga Nebulae, IC 405 and 410.
Also Sharpless 232, Sh2-232, IC 417, Messier 38 and NGC 1907 are seen in the image.
Image is composed from four panels and covers about nine degrees horizontally, that's equal to area of 18 full Moons side by side in the sky. There are not many images around to show the whole nebula complex.
IC 405 & 410
In constellation Auriga
HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
An older study about the scale in a sky can be seen here:
mage is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
An animated image to show the nebula with and without stars.
Click to see an animation
Click to see an animation
Mosaic image is build around this one frame image
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ic405-410.html
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color 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 arcseconds/pixel
Total exposure time for all channels (H-a, O-III and S-II) about 10 hours.
A map
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Siemis 147, the scale in a sky
"How much your telescope magnified?"
This HST-palette zoom in series has a "Moon circle" as a scale, to demonstrate the angular scale in a sky.
People generally seems to have a false idea, that high magnification is needed to capture deep space images.
In fact, many times it's quite contrary, targets are so large, that I have difficulties to fit them in my instruments field of view. Sample image here, Simeis 147, is shot with 200mm camera optics and it barely fits in image area.
Much more important, than magnification, is the light gathering power = aperture.
High magnification is needed for planetary imaging and some small angular size objects, like planetary nebulae and small galaxies.
I have placed a white circle in image series below, to show the angular size of the full Moon in the sky.
Moon has an apparent diameter ~30 arc minutes, that's equal to 0,5 degrees.
At first panoramic image at the Left three main objects are seen. At bottom lays IC 405 and IC 410, at top Siemis 147 (Sharpless 240, Sh2-240)
Original images used for the zoom in series, with technical data
Simeis 147:
IC 405 & 410:
A large collection of my scale studies can be found here:
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