Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Three wide field projects, three constellations
Yesterday I published a large mosaic of Cepheus. I have done two other large mosaics from two other Constellations, Auriga and Cygnus. In this blog post I show all three at the same time.
18-panels mosaic of the constellation Cygnus
Click for a large image, Note. 2300x1500 pixels and 3,5MB
Mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A blog post about this photo with more info and images:
12-panels mosaic of the Constellation Auriga
Click for a large image, Note. 2000x1000 pixels and 2,5MB
Total exposure time around 70 hours. Buy a photographic print from HERE
A blog post about this photo with more info and images:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/03/auriga-panorama-gets-bigger-12-panels.html
10-panels mosaic of the constellation Cepheus
Click for a large image, Note. 2900x1700 pixels and 6,6MB
Total exposure time around 92 hours. Buy a photographic print from HERE
A blog post about this photo with more info and images:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2014/01/a-grande-finale-of-cepheus-project.html
(I have done many smaller mosaic images but only the very large ones are listed here.)
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
A grande finale of the Cepheus project, mosaic of ten panels with colors
I have planned this Cepheus project for a long time. Finally I have been able to finalize it. I have done some large mosaic images of nebula rich areas in our Milky way. The ultra fast camera optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, it's a perfect tool for the job. It has a large, flat and sharp, image field and full open at f1.8, it collects photons very fast. The final image covers an area of about 18x10 degrees. (Full Moon has an apparent size about 0,5 degrees. 720 full Moons are needed to cover this area in the sky.)
To have a color image, each of the panels have been shot three times. This narrowband image is shot with QHY9 (a cooled astronomical camera), Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics full open, Baader Planetarium Narrowband filter set for an emission of ionized elements, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulfur. (H-alpha, O-III and S-III) The dimensions of the final mosaic image are 12000 x 6500 pixels.
Emission Nebulae in constellation Cepheus
Mosaic image of ten individual panels, total exposures 92h.
Click for a very large image, 3000 pixels wide and 7MB.
Buy a real photographic print from HERE
About 1:1 detail from the image above
Click for a full size photo
Lots of stars out there.
Cepheus Nebulae in visual spectrum
Composed from the narrowband channels
Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
Buy a real photographic print from HERE
B&W image with an emission of Hydrogen alpha only
Image of light, emitted by an ionized Hydrogen.
Buy a real photographic print from HERE
A labeled image and orientation
Some main objects are labeled here
An orientation in constellation Cepheus. The mosaic image covers an area of ~18x10 dgrees.
Technical details
I have used lots of an older material for this image. I have shot this area for years, with a different instruments, with different focal lengths and apertures. The total exposure time for the final mosaic image is calculated by adding the exposures for the actual mosaic to the exposures for sub-images used.
List of the sub-images used for a large, 10 panels, mosaic of Cepheus
The first part of the mosaic, four panels: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/12/a-start-of-new-project-cepheus-mosaic.html
Sharpless 132, a wide field shot: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/02/sh2-132-project-finalized.html
Sharpless 132, a closeup: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/10/the-second-image-of-autumn-season-2013.html
Cave Nebula, a wide field shot: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/01/sh2-155-cave-nebula-reprocessed.html
Cave Nebula, a closeup: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/the-cave-nebula_9.html
Processing work flow
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 50% weight
An extra background normalization in CCDStack for a mosaic match.
Color combine for each panel in PS CS3
Panel composition in PS CS3
Levels, curves and the final color matching in PS CS3.
Imaging optics used for the mosaic image
Meade LX200 GPS 12" reduced to f5
Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8
Canon EF 200mm f1.8
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera QHY 9, with a QHY filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodetsar
Active optics unit SXV-AO with Meade LX200 12" telescope
Baader Filter set, 7nm H-aplha, 8nm S-II and 8.5nm O-III
Total exposures used for a mosaic image
H-alpha 160 x 1200s Bin 1x1
O-III 66 x 1200s Bin 1x1
S-II 50 x 1200s Bin 1x1
Total exposures 276 x 1200s = 92h
Saturday, January 25, 2014
A zoom in series of the Cave Nebula, Sh2-155
Now and then I have published some zoom in series of various objects imaged by me.
The purpose is to show the apparent scale in the sky. Beside that, this series shows nicely the fractal nature of our universe. Series are possible to make, since I have shot many objects with various focal lengths.
Like this one is shot with 200mm, 300mm and ~2000mm focal lengths
The Cave Nebula, a study about the scale in the sky
Note. A circle, size of the Moon, in the images as a scale. (An apparent scale of the Moon is 0,5 degrees, or 30 arc minutes.)
Note. A circle, size of the Moon, in the images as a scale. (An apparent scale of the Moon is 0,5 degrees, or 30 arc minutes.)
All images are in Mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Orientation in constellation Cepheus
An orientation in constellation Cepheus. The mosaic image covers an area of ~18x10 dgrees.
Friday, January 24, 2014
A new header image, Oxygen emission of the Eastern Veil nebula
I have added a new header photo. It shows a small portion of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in Cygnus. Image shows the Eastern veil but only in light emitted by ionized Oxygen, O-III.
I have published this image at January 7 this year. A blog post about it can be seen HERE.
An emission of ionized Oxygen in Eastern Veil Nebula.
The Veil nebula SNR
This is an image about the whole Veil Nebula. A blog post about this image can be seen HERE
A detail image above can be seen at left edge of the image bellow. Click for a large image.
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