Sunday, April 21, 2013
A collection of images, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics
I have couple of high quality camera lenses for astronomical imaging, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 and Canon EF 200mm f1.8. Both lenses are wonderful instruments for an astronomical work, I always use them both full open.
Focusing under a fast f-number is very difficult task due to extremely narrow critical focus zone (At f1.8 the critical focus zone is around 7 microns, 7/1000mm) I have build an automatic focusing system for all camera lenses, images of it can be seen HERE and HERE. The system also compensates the temperature drift.
An other challenge is orthogonality between CCD-shell and optics. With slower optics this is not much a problem but with extremely fast optics a micron scale accuracy is needed. I have done hundreds of iterations with the CCDInspector software to have my Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics perpendicular with QHY9 camera. NOTE! There is nothing wrong with any mechanical part in a camera or the lens, the needed accuracy is just so high, that micron scale errors are seen, for example a protective glass over the CCD-array has a manufacturing tolerance of 1/100mm and that's enough to course problems in orthogonality. (Well... I'm kind of perfectionist and most photographers doesn't see any problems with fast optics, I do.)
A collection of my images with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics
Images are shot between 2009-2012
Images are shot between 2009-2012
Be sure to click the image larger! Note, a large file ~6MB
Canon EF 200mm f1.8
Canon EF lens Modification for the astronomical use
Canon EF lens Modification for the astronomical use
Since the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens is electronically focused and I'm using it without Canon camera body, I had to modified the lens to it to work. Be warned, the modification image series, behind the link HERE, is not for a weak minded persons!!!
Lens in use
Largest work with the Canon lens
A 18-panel mosaic of constellation Cygnus
More information and images of this project can be seen HERE.
Cygnus mosaic in frames
More info about the framed photo:
A collection of my images with the Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 optics
Images are shot between 2008-2011
Be sure to click the image larger!
I have made a collection of Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 image as well. Images are partly over lapping with the canon collection, since I have used both instruments, Canon and Tokina, to collect the data.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
A new poster out of the images from a season past
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
Be sure to click for a full scale image, 1920x2800 pixels and 4.5 MB
A HD 1080p movie from images above in
images are in chronological order
Photos of instruments, used for images above, can be seen
All of my astronomical art can be found from my
My telescope is not a pretty boy but it works
Please, click HERE to see my gears and info about them.
Examples of my experimental 3d-work
Movies and GIF-animations
3D-images in different formats
parallel and cross vision free view, anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D
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
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