Thursday, February 21, 2013
A new image, NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula
Image from last Tuesday, 19.02. I managed to use a crack in almost unbreakable cloud cover.
Result, ~4h exposures for the ionized Hydrogen of NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula.
While shooting with my old Meade 12", I shot colors simultaneously with the QHY8 astrocamera, Baader UHCs-filter and the Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens.
NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula
In the constellation Orion
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.
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A closeup
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INFO
Image in mapped colors
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 1590 can be seen at middle of the image.
Colors in the nebula are taken from this older image of mine:
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A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Note. A Moon size circle as a scale, click for a large image
More info about this scale study in blog post here:
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
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
Baader IR-cut filter
22x600s = 3,6h
Color channels for a mapped-palette image, O-III and S-II, are from an older image of mine.
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and nonliterary stretched to visible.
Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
And yes, it really does look like a head of a monkey!
Monday, February 18, 2013
3D-study of NGC 6543, the Cat's eye 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, some 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.
Cat's Eye Nebula, NGC6543, as a 3D-model
This is a looped video, click to start and stop. Original movie is in HD1080p resolution.
Original 2D-image used for the animation
Original 2D-image used for the animation
A blog post with technical details can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/01/cats-eye-nebula-reprocessed.html
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)
Thursday, February 14, 2013
A new panorama from my IC 1805 material
Since I have shot several overlapping, longer focal length, images out of the IC 1805, the Heart Nebula, I'm able to stitch them together as a mosaic images.
A two frame panoramic mosaic of IC 1805 details
There are two images combined in this mosaic.
At left an unnamed trunk like formation, the original image with details can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/a-detail-from-heart-nebula.html
At right, a closeup image of an unnamed triangular shape, the original image with details can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/02/black-lace-detail-of-ic-1805-heart.html
The mosaic in natural 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.
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.
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