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Monday, December 16, 2013

NGC 6823 and many many stars



This wide field image shows many targets in very dense star field. From the Sharpless catalog, Sh2-90 and Sh2-88, from the NGC catalog, NGC 6820, 6823 and 6830 and many other named objects.

NGC 6823
In constellation Vulpecula, click for a large image

A bicolor image, H-a=RED, O-III=Green and Blue. This combination is very near to visual spectrum.
Note, the "noise" in the image is actually countless number of stars.
Click for a large image, 1200x1700 pixels and 3,3MB
You can buy a real high quality photographic print from HERE

A detail

This detail image is about 1:1 scale from the original photo.


Orientation




An animation, stars vs starless
Click for a large image

A starless image shows some details, otherwise get buried under a massive amount of stars.
There are some filament like structures visible at lower left and lower middle.


Technical details

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 33% weight
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5 arcseconds/pixel
H-alpha, 12x1200s = 4h
O-III, 12x1200s = 4h
Total exposure time 8h


Hydrogen emission only (H-alpha)

You can buy a real high quality photographic print from HERE





Saturday, December 14, 2013

APOD by NASA, Astro Anarchy gets published



Astronomy Picture of the Day

My shot of the Bubble Nebula was selected as an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by NASA.
You can see the NASA page here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131214.html

The Bubble Nebula
In constellation Cassiopeia 


Originla blog post about this image, with technical details, can be seen here:

You can buy a real high quality photographic print from HERE



This is my sixth APOD, older ones can be seen here:








Thursday, December 12, 2013

An other supernova remnant in Cygnus, G65.3+5.7 SNR



This is a rarely imaged target. I haven't been able to find an other color image of it, showing the whole supernova remnant. This is also one of the most difficult targets, I have ever shot. Due to very dense star field, large angular dimension and a very diffused structure this is even more difficult target, than a Simeis 147 supernova remnant in Taurus. Total exposure time of 32h was needed to have this kind of "thin" image.

G65.3+5.7 SNR has about the same angular dimensions, than brighter and more famous remnant in Cygnus, the Veil Nebula.  The angular dimensions are about 3x4 degrees.
NOTE, this image is updated at 20.01.2014. There is now a better H-a channel and the background is practically full of ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha.

G65.3+5.7 SNR
A supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus


A bicolor image of the supernova remnant. An ionized Hydrogen emission (H-alpha) can be seen as Red and an ionized Oxygen emission (O-III) as Blue. Buy a photographic print from HERE


A detail image of G65.3+5.7 SNR
So many stars...

1:1 closeup from the original full resolution frame, the background is practically full of stars.


Orientation




Technical details

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 33% weight
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5 arcseconds/pixel
H-alpha, 51x1200s = 17h
O-III, 45x1200s = 15h
Total exposure time 32h

A single calibrated and stretched 20min O-III frame

Heavily stretched 1200s frame of the strongest channel, ionized Oxygen (O-III), doesn't show much.





Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Veil Nebula as an animation, stars vs starless



One of my experimental images. With suppressed stars, details of the supernova remnant pops up nicely.
Original blog post about the Veil Nebula can be seen HERE

The Veil Nebula 
A supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus