Friday, March 6, 2020
The Birth of Venus
I posted yesterday a photo of IC 405 & IC 410 area in constellation Auriga. I noticed that it was partly overlapping with my latest supernova remnant photo, the Simeis 147.
I was able to make a mosaic image from those two photos. I selected this unorthodox composition to publish my photo since it has a deeper meaning to me.
This composition has a same spirit, than a famous Italian painting The Birth of Venus (Nascita di Venere) by Botticelli, made in mid 1480.
When we are looking the remains of the supernova, we are looking the birthplace of building blocks we are made of. All the heavier elements than hydrogen and helium are formed in supernova explosion, like iron, oxygen and carbon. That's the real birth place of Venus!
The Birth of Venus
Click for a large image
Image is in mapped colors, Simeis 147 supernova remnant at top, IC 410 and iC 405 at bottom left.
Note, only central part of the painting is shown here. The whole painting of Botticelli can be seen here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus
The whole painting
Source, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus
Technical details for upper and lower mosaic panel.
Panel 1, Simeis 147, technical details
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/02/simeis-147-sh2-240-large-supernova.html
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-photo-deep-in-to-darkness.html
Thursday, March 5, 2020
New photo "Deep In To Darkness"
We are soon running out of darkness up here 65 North. I had a one good night between Tuesday and Wednesday and I got five hours data collected for IC 410 and IC 405.
f2.8 300mm camera lens, Tokina AT-x, combined with a large 9 micron pixels in Apogee Alta U16 astro camera gives me spatial resolution of 6 arcseconds/pixel. It's little undersampled but works extremely well for my purposes to capture very dim nebula structures.
Deep In To Darkness, IC 405, IC 410 and companions
Click for a full resolution image, It's worth it!
H-alpha channel alone, labeled
A closeup
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
Total exposure time
H-alpha, 9 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 3 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 1 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 1 h
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
"Two ways to die", an alternative composition
One of the dimmest targets I have ever shot. The supernova remnant Simeis 147 is large and dim but this nebula pair in Auriga is much dimmer. There are very few images about this target around. Photo is taken with Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Apogee Alta U16 astro camera.
This is an alternative vertical composition, the horizontal composition can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/two-ways-to-die-sh2-216-sh2-221.html
I think this vertica version is little more dynamic as a composition.
Supernova remnant and a planetary nebula in the same field of view
Click for a large photo
Photo is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Image spans vertically about six degrees, (That's equal to 12 full Moons side by side in the sky.) The planetary Nebula Sharpless 216 at top and the supernova remnant Sharpless 221 lays at bottom.
H-alpha, 36 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 12 h
O-III, 33 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 11 h
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 3 h
INFO
Sh2-216, the closest planetary nebula to earth ever discovered.
Image spans about six degrees horizontally, at left lays the large and very dim planetary nebula Sharpless 216 (aka Simeis 288, Marsalkova 44, LBN 742, GN 04.41.3)
This planetary nebula is the closest known planetary nebula to Earth, about 390 light years, and also one of the oldest known. Due the old age, it's very diffused, dim and large, apparent diameter is about 1,6 degrees. (Full Moon is about 0,5 degrees wide)
Supernova remnant Sh2-221
At right side of the photo lays a dim nad diffused supernova remnant Sh2-221 (SNR G160.4+02.8, HB9) it locates in constellation Auriga, about one degree West from star Capella. (Doesn't show in my image) The distance from the Earth, 2600 light years, is determined recently at 2007. This object was recognized as a supernova remnant back at seventies.
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 26h
H-alpha, 36 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 12 h
O-III, 33 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 11 h
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 3 h
Monday, March 2, 2020
Supernova remnant IC 443 wide field
The imaging season up here 65N will end in a month since we are rapidly running out of darkness. I spend last Friday night with the Jellyfish nebula, IC 443, in Gemini.
The current imaging system takes me deep very fast, Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens, Astrodon narrowband filters and Apogee Alta U16 camera. This combination has turned to be a very nice imaging tool inteed.
IC 443, NGC 2175 & Messier 35
Click for a large image, it's worth it!
Mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A star cluster Messier 35 at upper right, IC 443 at middle left and NGC 2175 at lower right.
H-alpha alone
Click for a large image
3h of light emitted by an ionized hydrogen, H-alpha.
INFO
Source Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_443
A star cluster Messier 35 at upper right, IC 443 at middle left and NGC 2175 at lower right.
H-alpha alone
Click for a large image
INFO
One of the reasons i took this image is the "Monkey head nebula", NGC 2175, at lower right corner.
I have shot this area with a much longer focal length back in 2015. At my image there is a very faint extended shape visible in my photo. I wanted to see, if I'm able to catch it with my current imaging system as well. This very dim feature is strongly visible in my new photo too! (Monkey head nebula is rotated 180 degrees in large image below.)
Older long focal length photo of NGC 2175 from Spring season 2015, more info here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/03/ngc-2174-monkey-head-nebula-project.html
IC 443
IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini. It locates visually near the star Eta Geminorum at distance of about 5000 light years.
IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds
IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds
Source Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_443
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
Total exposure time
H-alpha, 9 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 3 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 1 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 1 h
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