Wednesday, February 13, 2013
IC 443, supernova remnant as a closeup
I have shot several times this supernova remnant in Gemini. In this image, there are three different exposure sets combined, first from the year 2010 and two others from this season. Total exposure time is now around 20h. Latest images for this target are shot at 11.02 this week, 3h of H-alpha emission.
A Gemini SNR, IC 443, the "Jellyfish Nebula"
Ra 06h 17m 13s Dec +22° 31′ 05′′
Image is in HST-palette, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
INFO
IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini. It locates visually near the star Eta Geminorum at distance of about 5000 light years.
IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds
Source Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_443
IC 443 in visual colors
A 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.
Older wide field images of the same target
Click for large images
A wide field image from Spring season 2012, Image info in the blog post here:
Two panel mosaic
A two panel mosaic, info in the original blogpost here:
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Click for a large image
Note. A Moon size circle as a scale.
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 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
Exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 20h
Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field image.
A single unprocessed 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.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
A two frame mosaic of IC 1805
This is a two frame mosaic of IC 1805, the Heart Nebula. Image shows a detail, from much large nebula complex, in natural colors. Colors are combined to a visual spectrum from emissions of ionized elements.
A detail of IC 1805 emission nebula
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.
This image in a HST-palette and technical details can be found from my previous post
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/02/black-lace-detail-of-ic-1805-heart.html
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Moon size circle as a scale
Note. a Moon size circle in images as a scale.
The apparent size of the full Moon is ~30 arc minutes, that's equal to ~0.5 degrees.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Black Lace, a detail of IC 1805, the Heart Nebula
This have been one of the worst winters for astrophotographing up here 65N. Somehow I managed to shoot six hours of H-alpha light for this target under a bad transparency, seeing was kind of good though.
Generally I'll like to shoot two or three times more exposures per target but if I'll do so, I might get only four new images per year... For the same reasons I have used my older, wide field, images as a source of color data. Naturally it's better to shoot all the color channel at same focal length but ones again, weather up here is too volatile for that.
OK, enough whining here. I proudly present the new image of IC 1805 from 5. January,
Black Lace, a detail of IC 1805, the Heart nebula
A closeup of IC 1805 in mapped colors. Edges of the triangle shape, at middle right, looks like a black lace.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A mosaic with Melotte 15
Since this new image of mine was overlapping with the Melotte 15 image, I made a two frame mosaic out of them.
A mapped color mosaic image shows the Melotte 15 at upper right corner.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Black Lace in natural colors
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.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Orientation in the Heart Nebula
The area of interest is marked with a white rectangle.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
INFO
The "Heart Nebula", IC1805 locates about 7500 light years away in constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glow of ionized elements in a gas cloud and some darker dust lanes.
In a very center of the nebula, lays Melotte 15, it contains few very bright stars, nearly 50 times mass of our Sun, and many dim ones. The solar wind, a radiation pressure, from massive stars makes the gas twist to a various shapes.
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 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
18 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 6h
Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field images.
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and stretched. Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
3D-study of Messier 27, the Dumbbell nebula
This is an experimental test with a 3D-conversion of my astronomical images. Only real elements from my image are used, there is nothing added but the volumetric information!
(In this image, two of the stars are enhanced for a visual reasons)
NOTE. This is a personal vision about shapes and volumes, based on some scientific data and an artistic impression.
Dumbbell Nebula, M27, 3D-model
This is a looped video, click to start and stop. Original movie is in HD1080p resolution.
Large movie in Vimeo service
(HD720p)
https://vimeo.com/59052389
NOTE. Right click the video to turn HD and Loop on!
Large movie in Vimeo service
(HD720p)
https://vimeo.com/59052389
NOTE. Right click the video to turn HD and Loop on!
Original 2D-image of the Messier 27
More images and technical details in this blog post:
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Info about the technique used
Due to huge distances, real parallax can't be imaged in most of the astronomical objects.
I have developed an experimental technique to convert my astropics to a artificial volumetric models.
My 3-D experiments are a mixture of science and an artistic impression. I collect distance and other information before I do my 3-D conversion. Usually there are known stars, coursing the ionization, so I can place them at right relative distance. If I know a distance to the nebula, I can fine tune distances of the stars so, that right amount of stars are front and behind of the object.
I use a “rule of thumb” method for stars: brighter is closer, but if a real distance is known, I'm using that. Many 3-D shapes can be figured out just by looking carefully the structures in nebula, such as dark nebulae must be at front of the emission nebulae in order to show up etc...
The general structure of many star forming regions is very same, there is a group of young stars, as an open cluster inside of the nebula. The stellar wind from the stars is then blowing the gas away around the cluster and forming a kind of cavitation – or a hole — around it. The pillar-like formations in the nebula must point to a source of stellar wind, for the same reason.
How accurate the final model is, depends how much I have known and guessed right. The motivation to make those 3-D-studies is just to show, that objects in the images are not like paintings on the canvas but really three dimensional objects floating in the three dimensional space. This generally adds a new dimension to my hobby as an astronomical imager. (Pun intended)
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