Thursday, January 23, 2020
A deep view to the California Nebula, NGC 1499
beautifully rounded stars..
California Nebula, NGC 1499
Please, click for a full size image
Image is in natural colors combined from the narrowband channels. H-alpha = Red, O-III = Green and O-III + 20% H-alpha = Blue. This is a very deep image, I haven't seen those extended shapes at upper right and around the brighter nebula.
INFO
The California Nebula is an emission area located in constellation Perseus. It appears to resemble outlines of State of California on long exposure photographs, like this one. It has a very low surface brightness and it's very difficult to observe visually. Distance from my hometown Oulu, Finland, is about 1000 light years.
this image spans around five degrees horizontally. The Wikipedia article states, that the angular size is about 2,5 degrees (Five full Moons side by side) but as can be seen in this image, the actual size, with a dim outer parts, is much large.
This is a large object, note, the size of the Moon is marked, as a scale, in all of the images above.
H-alpha exposure alone
Please, click for a full size image
H-alpha image contains seven 20 min sub exposures stacked together. Exposure time is 2h 20 min..
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
Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras, filters and guiding
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Total exposure time
H-alpha, 7 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h 20 min.
O-III, 2x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 40 min.
On older image of California nebula in mapped colors
The apparent scale in a sky
Please, click for a full size image
This is a large object, note, the size of the Moon is marked, as a scale, in all of the images above.
More info about his photo from the year 2012 here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2012/02/california-nebula-ngc-1499-with-some.html
Sunday, January 19, 2020
An animated Heart Nebula, IC1805 with and without stars
My "new" imaging system combines a Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 lens to a large CCD of Apogee Alta U16 astro camera with 4096x4096 9 micron pixels. This combination has a resolution of about 5 arc seconds/pixels. Undersampling imaging system is a great tool to bring out very dim and diffused nebulae very fast. This photo of Heart Nebula has only 2h of H-alpha light and just 30 min O-III light.
IC 1805 without stars
Please, click for a full size image
It's easier to see the actual nebula when stars are removed. Human brains has a tendency to form quasi logical shapes and forms from a random cloud of dots. Famous example of this phenomena is Percival Lowell and canals of Mars.
An animated image, IC 1805 with and without stars
Please, click for a full size image
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
Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Total exposure time
H-alpha, 12 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 3x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 30 min..
O-III, 3x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 30 min..
From Bubble to Cave Nebula in visual colors
At January 10. I shot few lights for this busy area in Cassiopeia from the Bubble Nebula to Cave nebula. The Tokina 300mm AT-x f2.8 camera lens combined to Apogee Alta U16 camera is a very good to capturing photons. The combination of fast f2.8 optics and 9 micron pixels, (4096 x 4096 pixels) goes very deep very fast. (First light photo here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/first-light-for-winter-season-2019-20.html)
From Bubble to Cave Nebula
Please, click for a large image!
Image is in visual palette combined from emissions of ionized elements. Red=H-alpha + S-II, Green= O-III and Blue=O-III + 25%H-alpha to compensate missing H-beta emission.
Same data in mapped colors can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-light-for-my-wide-field-imaging.html
H-alpha, 18 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2,5 h
O-III, 6x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 1 h.
S-II, 2 x 600 s. binned 1x1 = 20 min.
Same data in mapped colors can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-light-for-my-wide-field-imaging.html
Orientation
Please, click for a large image!
The area of the new photo is marked as a white rectangle. Info about this image here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-grande-finale-of-cepheus-project.html
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
Tokina AT-x f2.8 camera lens
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Total exposure time
H-alpha, 18 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2,5 h
O-III, 6x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 1 h.
S-II, 2 x 600 s. binned 1x1 = 20 min.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Deep view to IC 1396
IC 1396 in visual colors
Please, click for a large image
Red glow of an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha) is dominating the view, bluish hues at center are from an ionized oxygen (O-III). There is some very faint O-III emission visible at nine o'clock position, near the left edge. I can see some circular shape there as well. It might be a very dim and diffused planetary nebula, I must look into this later. It can be seen better in mapped color version of this photo, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/first-light-for-winter-season-2019-20.html
INFO
H-alpha, 12 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 6x 600 s, binned 4x4 = 1 h.
S-II, 3 x 600 s. binned 4x4 = 0,5 h
INFO
IC 1396 spans hundreds of light years at distance of about 3000 light years in constellation Cepheus. The famous formation of glowing gases, the "Elephant's Trunk Nebula" can be seen at four o'clock position.
This is an active star formation region and it has several massive young stars inside it, coursing the ionization of elements of this emission nebula.
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
Tokina AT-x f2.8 camera lens
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Total exposure time
H-alpha, 12 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 6x 600 s, binned 4x4 = 1 h.
S-II, 3 x 600 s. binned 4x4 = 0,5 h
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