Wednesday, April 3, 2013
It's over... no more astroimaging for me... sigh
The Winter season 2012-2013 starts to be over up here 65N. We'll loose dark nights for about six months, due to high latitude. Past Winter was kind of cloudy but since my observatory locates next to my home, I was able to use nearly every clear moment during the Winter.
Image count is relatively high since many of the images are just finalized in this season and there have been material from past years to continue to work with. I have published 24 new images ( Plus color and other versions of them.)
Beside traditional astronomical images, I have done some experimental work by adding a volumetric information to my images. My 3D-work gets widely published by several medias, like Wired magazine, Smithsonian Institute magazine, PetaPixel and many many others.
Beside traditional astronomical images, I have done some experimental work by adding a volumetric information to my images. My 3D-work gets widely published by several medias, like Wired magazine, Smithsonian Institute magazine, PetaPixel and many many others.
At end of the year 2012, one of my experimental 3D-images was selected as one of The Best Astronomical Images of 2012 by the astronomer Phil Plait.
Collection of my images from the Winter season 2012-13 as a poster
Be sure to click for a full size image!
A movie from the images
Images are in chronological order, duration 5 min.
To see this movie in full HD1080p resolution in Youtube, click HERE
Select a wanted HD resolution under a You Tube by clicking the gear symbol at lower right corner. Watch the movie in full screen for a best experience.
A slide show
Images are in chronological order
Please, click HERE to see the folder of images in my portfolio.
Info about equipment used for all of my images
Please, click HERE to see my gears and info about them.
All my images can be found from my portfolio
With technical details and other information
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/
Examples of my experimental 3d-work
Movies and GIF-animations
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/search/label/animations
3D-images in different formats
parallel and cross vision free view, anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072
Select a wanted HD resolution under a You Tube by clicking the gear symbol at lower right corner. Watch the movie in full screen for a best experience.
A slide show
Images are in chronological order
Please, click HERE to see the folder of images in my portfolio.
Info about equipment used for all of my images
All my images can be found from my portfolio
With technical details and other information
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/
Examples of my experimental 3d-work
Movies and GIF-animations
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/search/label/animations
3D-images in different formats
parallel and cross vision free view, anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072
Friday, March 29, 2013
Owl nebula, Messier 97
This seems to be my last image for the winter season 2013.
M97, the Owl nebula
in constellation Ursa Major
Click for a large image.
Image is in visual spectrum, red light is emitted by an ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Some of the colors, like stars, are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
INFO
In my image the outer shell of ionized Oxygen, O-III, can be seen around the round nebula. It's very rarely imaged, I found just couple of images, taken with large 2-3 meter telescopes, showing it. I did use my "Tone Mapping" technique to dig out this very faint signal.
The Owl Nebula, M97, is located about 2,600 light-years away toward the bottom of the Big Dipper's bowl. M97, from Messier's list of objects, its round shape along with the placement of two large, dark "eyes" do suggest the face of a staring owl. One of the fainter objects in Messier's catalog, the Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula, a dying sun-like star as it runs out of nuclear fuel. In fact, the Owl Nebula offers an example of the fate of our Sun as it runs out of fuel in another 5 billion years. The nebula spans over 2 light-years.
A drawing of Owl Nebula from 1848
I wanted to place this sympathetic image here, It's a drawing of Owl nebula by William Parson back from 1848.
O-III channel processing
to show the outer shell structure
Click to see large image
- Calibrated and stretched stack, 8h of exposures.
- Stars are removed by using several iterations of "dust and scratches" filter under PhotoShop.
- Levels are set.
- First iteration of curves.
- Second iteration of curves, second set of "dust and scratches" filtering to remove background unevenness, mild gaussian blur and some median filtering (5x5) to reduce noise level
- Finally image number 5 is combined with second image from top to have both, core details and the outer halo.
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 4Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
Exposures from three different nights, 16., 26. and 29.03 2013
H-alpha 18x1200s, binned 1x1 = 6h
O-III 24x1200s, binned 1x1 = 8h
+
Color exposures with QHY8 single shot color camera and Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 lens.
36x600s exposures with UHCs-filter = 6h
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Jones-Emberson 1, the project continues
The Jones-Emberson 1, project continues. I shot five more hours of O-III (light emitted by an ionized Oxygen.) to this planetray nebula. The area of O-III seems to be more extended, than most of the images around are showing.
At previous mail, I wrote about a possible outer halo in this PN. I have not collected enough information to confirm it, even though I shot five more hours with my fast imaging system, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 lens, UHCs-filter and QHY8 camera. It's very much possible, that there is nothing after all but we'll see at end of the next season, spring 2014.
Generally the new O-III data gives a softer look to this extremely dim planetary nebula. The total exposure time is now ~36h, with wide field color data.
Jones-Emberson 1
Ra 07h 57m 51.628s Dec +53° 25′ 16.96
PK 164+31.1 a planetary nebula in Lynx
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A cropped full size image, this is a large object as a planetary nebua.
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. Some of the 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.
A wider field
Buy a photographic print from HERE
INFO
There are many background galaxies in this image but they are not showing very well, due to narrowband imaging method. Galaxies and stars are broadband targets and they dim down much, when narrowband filters are used. I'll like to be able to shoot this from a dark location with a LRGB-method.
largish and very dim, planetary nebula.PK 164+31.1, sometimes known as a "Jones-Emberson 1" has an angular diameter of 6', 67" x 6', 67" and it locates in constellation Lynx. Distance from my home town Oulu, Finland, is about 1600 light years.
The tiny Blue central star is a white dwarf, the intense ultraviolet light emitted by this star makes elements in a ring glow. Ionized Hydrogen emits red light and the ionized Oxygen blue one.
Why the name "PK 164+31.1"?
PK comes from the names of Czechoslovakian astronomers Perek and Kouhutec. 1967 they created an extensive catalog of all of the known planetary nebulae in 1964. The number indicates the position in the sky. The alternative name "Jones-Emberson 1" is after its discoveries.
Five hours of new O-III data
Shot at 25.03. 2013
Five hours of new O-III data
Shot at 25.03. 2013
This image shows an example about my processing technique. I'm using a special technique of mine to dig out a very weak signal. The upper image shows a stacked, calibrated and heavily stretched 5h exposure of an O-III light. The image below shows the same data after star removing procedure . The signal from the ionized oxygen is then stretched much more and smoothed out by using a median filtering, 5x5, and some gaussian blur.
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
Exposures
H-alpha 21x1200s, binned 1x1 = 8h (A new set from the spring 2013.)
(Older sets from Spring 2010)
H-alpha 32x1200s, binned 2x2 and 7x1200s, binned 3x3 = 13h
O-III 2x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h
O-III 15x1200s, binned 1x1, = 5h (A new set from the spring 2013.)
O-III 15x1200s, binned 1x1, = 5h (A new set from the spring 2013.)
S-II 3x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h 20min.
+
Color exposures with QHY8 single shot color camera, spring 2013
48x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 8h
48x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 8h
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and nonlineary stretched to visible.
Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Color data
This is a image used for colors only, it doesn't need to be high resolution, nor pretty, since there are very litle details in other than H-a channel.
A UHCs filtered data from Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens, total 8h.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Jones-Emberson 1, a Palnetary Nebula
I have shot some new h-alpha data for this extremely dim planetary nebula. Total exposure time is now around 20h for the light emitted by an ionized Hydrogen alone. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a by using the Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera optics, UHC-sfilter and a cooled single shot color astrocamera, QHY8. Exposure time for the color information is around 8h. Total exposure time used is ~23h.
NOTE!
An unknown outer shell structure might be visible in my color data! It can be an artifact though and much more exposures are needed to show it well enough to be sure. Explanation at the end of this post.
Jones-Emberson 1
Ra 07h 57m 51.628s Dec +53° 25′ 16.96
PK 164+31.1 a planetary nebula in Lynx
A cropped full size image, this is a large object as a planetary nebua.
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.
NOTE. An updated image, 5h of O-III data added 25.03.
NOTE. An updated image, 5h of O-III data added 25.03.
A wider field
NOTE. An updated image, 5h of O-III data added 25.03.
INFO
There are many background galaxies in this image but they are not showing very well, due to narrowband imaging method. Galaxies and stars are broadband targets and they dim down much, when narrowband filters are used. I'll like to be able to shoot this from a dark location with a LRGB-method.
largish and very dim, planetary nebula.PK 164+31.1, sometimes known as a "Jones-Emberson 1" has an angular diameter of 6', 67" x 6', 67" and it locates in constellation Lynx. Distance from my home town Oulu, Finland, is about 1600 light years.
The tiny Blue central star is a white dwarf, the intense ultraviolet light emitted by this star makes elements in a ring glow. Ionized Hydrogen emits red light and the ionized Oxygen blue one.
Why the name "PK 164+31.1"?
PK comes from the names of Czechoslovakian astronomers Perek and Kouhutec. 1967 they created an extensive catalog of all of the known planetary nebulae in 1964. The number indicates the position in the sky. The alternative name "Jones-Emberson 1" is after its discoveries.
Jones-Emberson 1, H-alpha emission alone
Image shows this planetary nebula in light emitted by an ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. In color image, there is also light from an ionized Oxygen, O-III. (H-a emits red light and O-III green/blue light.)
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
Exposures
H-alpha 21x1200s, binned 1x1 = 8h (A new set from spring 2013)
(Older sets from Spring 2010)
H-alpha 32x1200s, binned 2x2 and 7x1200s, binned 3x3 = 13h
O-III 2x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h
S-II 3x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h 20min.
+
Color exposures with QHY8 single shot color camera, spring 2013
48x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 8h
48x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 8h
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and nonlineary stretched to visible.
Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.
Color data
This is a image used for colors only, it doesn't need to be high resolution, nor pretty, since there are very litle details in other than H-a channel.
A UHCs filtered data from Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens, total 8h.
Possible finding, an outer shell?
After removing all the stars from the color image above, I was able to stretch the individual color channels to an extreme, without blowing the stars. It is possible, that there is an unknown outer shell in this nebula!
It's possible, that this is just an artifact and much more exposures are needed to show it well enough to be sure. This season starts to be over up here 65N but I'll continue to study this at next spring season, 2014.
A very strongly stretched starless color image of Jones-Emberson 1, 8h exposure, shows a hint of an outer shell structure at mostly Right side at the image above. Outer shell seems to be a pure O-III emission and that's kind of typical to a many planetray nebulae. But as mentioned, this is speculation until I have more data.
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