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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Soul Nebula, IC 1848, as a two frame mosaic



This image is originally shot this Autumn between 27 and 29.10. I haven't publish it before, since I have had so much material to share. The new imaging system gives me a nice field of view, with a high resolution. 
63x63 arc minutes at a scale of 0,95 arc seconds/pixel. That's over a square degree of sky.

IC 1848, the Soul Nebula
Ra 02h 51m 36.24s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"  Click for a large image!

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen. The photo is stitched together from two separate shots.

An experimental starless view

Details of the actual nebula stands out better in this starless view.

Info

Soul Nebula, (Sh2-199, LBN 667) is an emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. IC 1848 is a cluster inside Soul Nebula. Distance is about 7.500 light years. This complex is a Eastern neighbor of IC 1805, the "Heart Nebula" and they are often mentioned together as Heart and Soul.

A wider field photo

In this wide field image of mine, the Soul Nebula is shown with its neighbor, the Heart nebula. Image is shot with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens, Baader narrowband filters and the QHY9 cooled astronomical camera. My older photos of the Soul nebula can be seen HERE

Nebula in visual spectrum

Red is a dominant color since the strongest emission line of hydrogen, H-alpha, emits red light. Bluish hues are from ionized oxygen, O-III

Hydrogen alpha image

Nebula in H-alpha light alone.


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 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f7 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5 nm H-alpha

Exposure times
H-alpha, 24 x 1200s = 8h (4h/panel)
O-III, 6x1200 (1h/panel), binned 4x4
S-II, 6x1200 (1h/panel), binned 4x4
Total 12h





Saturday, November 15, 2014

APOD by NASA, Astro Anarchy gets published



Astronomy Picture of the Day

My shot of the Tulip Nebula, Sh2-101, was selected as an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by NASA. You can see the NASA page here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141115.html

The Tulip Nebula
In constellation Cygnus 


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

You can buy a real museum quality photographic print from HERE

This is my seventh APOD, older ones can be seen here:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131214.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110218.html




Thursday, November 13, 2014

DWB-111, the Propeller nebula



The data for this object is shot at 31.10 last month but I got it processed just now.
The data for the emission of ionized Oxygen and Sulfur (O-III and S-II) is borrowed from my wide field shot of the area back from the first light image of Autumn 2011.


DWB-111, the Propeller Nebula
In constellation Cygnus, click for a large images

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen.

An experimental starless view

The actual nebula stands out nicely in this experimental starless version of my photo.

Info

Propeller Nebula (DWB 111, MRSL 497). This S-like formation is part of the much large area of emission nebula in constellation Cygnus. There are very little information about the origin and distance of this structure is unknown.

Image in visual colors

Emission line channels are combined to match to a visual spectrum.

A wide field image of the nebula

A wide field image from the Autumn 2011. More info and image in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html
Also O-III and S-II channels are borrowed from this photo.

Orientation in Cygnus

The area of new photo is marked as a white rectangle.

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 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f7 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5 nm H-alpha

Exposure times
H-alpha, 12 x 1200s = 4h
O-III & S-II from an older wide field photo of mine.



A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

A furious cosmic horse gets blinded by a divine blue light



My latest photo, Sh2-132. I rarely give a name to my photos, other than the official catalog number or well known nickname, this time I couldn't resist to give a name of my own.

A furious cosmic horse gets blinded by a divine blue light
Sharpless 132 (Sh2-132) in Cepheus

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen. If you like to have a photographic print, click HERE

A closeup composition

If you like to have a photographic print, click HERE

Why a furious horse?

A marble horse sculpture from Piazza Navona, Rome Italy, it's placed in the image to show the horse figure.

INFO

Sharpless 132 is a very faint emission nebula, it locates at the border of Cepheus and Lacerta. Distance is about 10.000 lightyears. My photo covers about one square degree of the sky (63x63"). The blue color in the image is from the emission of an ionized Oxygen (O-III). "The divine blue light" at horses face seems to be an Oxygen jet of some kind, or it's just a tens of light years long oddly shaped area of glowing gas. The shape can be seen in H-alpha channel too. (Ionized Hydrogen)

The actual nebula is much large, as can be seen in my older wide field photo of the area.

Area of interest is marked at my older wide field image of the Sh2-132. The original image from the Winter 2011, with technical details, can be found from HERE

A starless view

The actual nebula stands out nicely in this experimental starless version of my photo.

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 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f7 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5nm H-alpha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III

Exposure times
H-alpha, 9 x 1200s = 3h
O-III, 3 x 1200s = 1h
S-II, 3x1200s = 1h

A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame