Sunday, January 27, 2013
Soul Nebula detail, IC 1848
I was able to shoot through four nights at last week. Unfortunately three of those night was ruined by a bad seeing, FWHM around 7, and nearly invisible thin clouds ate out the weaker signals. However, I had enough good data for couple of new images, here is the first one, IC 1848.
A closeup of IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula"
Ra 02h 51m 36.24s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are shot with a QHY8 color camera, Tokina 300mm f2.8 optics and the Baader UHCs filter.
The open cluster IC 1848 can be seen at upper right edge of the image. (Two bright stars surrounded by a group of dimmer stars.)
The open cluster IC 1848 can be seen at upper right edge of the image. (Two bright stars surrounded by a group of dimmer stars.)
There are 14x20min H-alpha light collected for this image, color data is borrowed from my older wide field image of the Soul Nebula. This is the second time for my tandem camera system, Star colors are shot at the same time, as the closeup image, with the QHY8 color camera and the Baader UHCs-filter. This filter delivers real colors for the stars, even though it's kind of narrowband filter.
INFO
Soul Nebula, (Sh2-199, LBN 667) is an emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. IC 1848 is a cluster inside Soul Nebula. Distance is about 7.500 light years. This complex is a Eastern neighbor of IC 1805, the "Heart Nebula" and they are often mentioned together as Heart and Soul.
A study about the apparent scale
IC 1848 in visual colors
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
Orientation and colors
The area of interest is marked with a white rectangle. Mapped colors, in up most image, are from this one.
This UHCs filtered image was shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
Colors in visual color image, second from the top, are taken from this image, as well as the star colors in both versions.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 12Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
15 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 5h
Optics and exposures used for colors
Optics and exposures used for colors
Tokina AT-X 300mm at f2.8
QHY8, a cooled single shot color camera
Baader UHC-s filter
Baader IR-cut filter
16x900s = 4h
16x900s = 4h
Color channels for a mapped-palette image, O-III and S-II, are from an older wide field image.
A single calibrated 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and stretched. Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
A heavenly velvet, IC 405
A new image from the night of 10.01.
IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula
In constellation Auriga
This is a first time when I used two optics and the cameras at the same time.
H-a is shot with my old Meade LX200 12", Baader H-alpha filter and a cooled gray scale astrocamera, QHY9.
Colors are shot at the same time by using a Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens, Baader UHC-s filter and the cooled single shot color astrocam, QHY8. Tokina system was at back of the Meade telescope.
Image with Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens, Baader UHC-s filter and QHY8 cooled color camera.
This image was shot at the same time as narrower field H-alpha shot with Meade LX200 12" and QHY9 astro camera.
INFO
IC 405 locates in constellation Auriga and it's an emission/reflection nebula. Reflection component can't be seen in my image, since I'm shooting only narrowband data and reflection part is broadband target.
Distance from Oulu, Finland, is about 1500 light years. Nebula is about 5 light years across.
IC 405, mapped colors in HST-palette
Click for a large image.
Orientation
In a wider field image
The area of interest is marked with a white rectangle.
Wide field images of the area
A twelve panel mosaic of the constellation Auriga in HST-mapped colors.
Note. a largish image, 2.75MB and 2000x1100 pixels.
A blog post about this image, with technical details, can be seen here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/03/auriga-panorama-gets-bigger-12-panels.html
A central portion of the mosaic above.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 5Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
12 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 4h
Optics and exposures used for colors
Tokina AT-X 300mm at f2.8
QHY8, a cooled single shot color camera
Baader UHC-s filter
36x300s = 3h
Optics and exposures used for colors
Tokina AT-X 300mm at f2.8
QHY8, a cooled single shot color camera
Baader UHC-s filter
36x300s = 3h
Color channels for HST-palette image, O-III and S-II, are from an older wide field image.
Friday, January 11, 2013
NGC 1491, the project finalized
I was able to finalize this imaging project since I found an older wide field color image of mine from this area.
I used colors from this wider field image and it seems to work fine. naturally the resolution is much lower in other than H-alpha channel but it doesn't harm the image too much since there are not much details in O-III and S-II channels in this case.
NGC 1491
in constellation Perseus
Colors are mapped to a HST-palette, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen
Click for a large image.
INFO
NGC 1491 is an emission nebula, in the constellation Perseus, at the distance of about 10700 light years. The ultraviolet light from the newly born stars makes elements in the nebula glow. There is an an 11th magnitude star in its center. The solar wind, a radiation pressure, from the central star is blowing a bubble in the gas surrounding it. This is a dim one, seven hours of exposures was barely enough to reveal it.
A closeup
NGC 1491 in natural colors
Combined from the emission lines of H-a, S-II and O-III
A wide field image
Shot at Spring 2012
The large nebula at center is Sharpless 205 (Sh2-205), NGC 1491 can be seen at upper left corner..
Some info about the wide field 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.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 5Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
21 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 7h
Color channels for O-III and S-II are from an older wide field image.
Ps.
A popular shape in our local universe
While processing the image, I noticed a familiar shape in the center portion of the image.
It seems to repeat itself in various targets. My guess is, that it's coursed by the solar wind from the open cluster usually locates in center of the emission nebula of this type.
A collection of targets with same type of shapes as can be seen in center of the this new image.
The top most two images are from NGC 1491.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
An emission nebula NGC 1491
A start of the new imaging project.
I'll shoot other two emission channels, needed for a color image, as soon as the weather allows.
NGC 1491
in constellation Perseus
NGC 1491 in H-alpha emission light
INFO
A closeup
A detail from the center of the image above
A popular shape in our local universe
While processing the image, I noticed a familiar shape in the center portion of the image.
It seems to repeat itself in various targets. My guess is, that it's coursed by the solar wind from the open cluster usually locates in center of the emission nebula of this type.
A collection of targets with same type of shapes as can be seen in center of the this new image.
The top most two images are from NGC 1491.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 5Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
21 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 7h
An experimental starless image
A starless image to show only the actual nebula
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