Sunday, November 25, 2018
Clouds of Cygnus
I have been using my large 18-panels mosaic image of the Cygnus Nebula Complex as a map to a some rarely imaged dimmer nebulae in that area. The large mosaic photo was taken with a Canon EF 200mm@f1.8 camera lens. I have shot many interesting areas from that photo with much longer focal length instruments.
Last few years I have been using an excellent telescope for that task, Celestron Edge 11" reflecting telescope with 0.7 focal reducer. BTW, this is one of the very best focal reducers I have ever been using! Its build like a tank and optical quality is next to nothing. The reducer cost about as much as an good quality refracting telescope but it's worth of every penny. With this reducer my Apogee Alta U16 camera has a spatial resolution of about one arcsecond per pixel. That image scale is pretty much optimal for my imaging purposes.
This time I picked up an interesting looking object from Cygnus Nebula Complex. This emission nebula is a kind of dim target and I was able to dig out some extreme dim emission from the ionized oxygen too (O-III) I haven't seen any pictures focusing to this nameless target so far.
Clouds of CygnusPlease, click for a large photo
Visual colors
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In light of an ionized hydrogen alone (H-alpha)
Orientation in large context
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Technical details
Processing workflow
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 @ f10 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AOL
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Exposure times
H-alpha, 13 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 4 h
O-III, 6 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 2 h.
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 1 h
Friday, November 23, 2018
Deep photo of the North America & Pelican Nebula area
While shooting lights for my Giant Cosmic Squid project, I had to wait few hours every night to the Ou4 to be well placed in the sky. I spent those hours to shoot some frames for North America and Pelican Nebula area. I have shot many details from this area , while making my poster about Treasures of the Swan I noticed that there are many overlapping photos. I shot new material for the missing parts and finally, I was able to build a mosaic image of the area!
16-panels are now combined seamlessly to a very high resolution image. Each frame is shot three times, one exposure set for the light emitted by an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha), second set for the light emitted by an ionized sulfur (S-II) and third set for the ionized oxygen. (O-III) Total exposure time used for this image combo is just under 200h! The original resolution is around 16.000 x 16.000 pixels. Frames for this mosaic image are taken between 2014-2018 and I have published them as an
individual compositions.
individual compositions.
The Grande Mosaic of the North America and Pelican Nebula
Please, click the image to see a large version, it's worth it! (2000x2000 pixels)
Details from the image above
Please, click the image to see a large version
Nebula in light from an ionized hydrogen lone (H-alpha)
Please, click the image to see a large version
Orientation
Please, click the image to see a large version
Older photo is taken at 2012 with a Tokina AT 300 f2.8 camera lens, QHY9 astrocam and the Baader narrowband filter set.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Sharpless 129 and the Giant Squid
Due to my ongoing imaging project with the Giant Squid nebula (Ou4) I have about 20h of O-III data to use. I have shot the surrounding nebula, the Sharpless 129, back at 2013. I combined the new data with the old one and here are the results.
The Giant squid and the Sharpless 129
Please, click for a large image
The IC 1396, Giant squid and Sharpless 129
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The Giant squid and the Sharpless 129 in visual colors
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Data for the old image of Sh2-129 can been HERE
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
A Giant Squid, Ou4, a start of the new imaging project
I have planned to shoot this very dim nebua for a long time. So far I have collected ~20h of light emitted by an ionized oxygen (O-III). I'll shoot more exposures for this object in near future, if the weather gives any support.
The Celestron Edge 11" telescope with a 0.7 focal reducer has a perfect field of view for this object. This combo delivers a very high quality image from edge to edge. The Apogee U16 can be very challenging to have a good orthogonality and collimation with it, due to very large CCD-shell.
Here is some optical analysis to see, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-start-of-new-project-tulip-nebula.html
Ou4 in light of an ionized oxygen only
Please, click for a large image
Telescope, Celestron Edge 11"
An experimental starless version
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This object is dim to extreme
I shit this object at several night between 1. and 18. November. Total 60 frames of 20 min. exposures,
all binned down 4x4. (Total 20h of O-III signal) By this way I can have 16 times more signal than by using 1x1 binned exposures. I will shoot 1x1 binned high resolution exposures later for stars and some high signal to noise features and details in the area.
A single 20 min. calibrated and stretched O-III exposure
Please, click for a large image
INFO
Very faint but also very large on planet Earth's sky, a giant Squid Nebula cataloged as Ou4 is composed out of 20 hours of narrowband O-III image data. The telescopic field of view is 1 degrees or 2 Full Moons across. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula's alluring bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue-green emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. The true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, a recent investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, Ou4 would represent a spectacular outflow driven by HR8119, a triple system of hot, massive stars seen near the center of the nebula. The truly giant Squid Nebula would physically be nearly 50 light-years across.
Source, Nasa APOD
The scale in the sky and the orientation in a constellation Cepheus
Please, click for a large image
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