Thursday, February 18, 2021
Sharpless 132, sh2-132, with new data
I have shot a large four panel mosaic out of the Sharpless 132 emission Nebula at february 2019. At the time I was using the Celestron EDGE 11" telescope with reducer. Sh2-132 locates in the border of Cepheus and Lacerta at distance of about 10 000 ly.
I shot same object with a shorter focal length instrument, the Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera optics. Since the system is kind of undersampled, I got a very deep image of Sh2-132 just with four hours of exposures.
I have now combined those two images and the result has the best out of both worlds . All the high resolution details and the high signal to noise elements are from the long focal length photo and the dim background stuff is from short focal length photo. I have a new processing method to do this and it turned to be a very powerful for a work like this. I call it to VARES-method. Variable Resolution imaging. will be good tool when I want to go very deep very fast and have a high resolution details at the same time.
This is a way to combine best out of the correctly sampled and under sampled optical configurations!
I think this image is a good sample what VARES-technique can do.
Sharpless 132
Click for a large image
Sharpless 132 in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. (Hubble Palette)
A version with out VARES method can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2019/02/sharpless-132-sh2-132.html
A version with out VARES method can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2019/02/sharpless-132-sh2-132.html
A closeup
Click for a large image
A wide field image of the Sharpless 132
Click for a large image
Sharpless 132 in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Image details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-new-photo-of-sharpless-132-sh2-132.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 300mm f2.8 camera lens
Celestron EDGE 11" telescope with reducer
Celestron EDGE 11" telescope with reducer
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 used for VARES-processing
Tokina camera optics
Tokina camera optics
H-alpha, 6 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h
Celestron telescope
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h
Celestron telescope
Total exposure time for all of the four panels together
H-alpha, 48 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 16 h
O-III, 24 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 8 h.
S-II, 18 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 6 h
O-III, 24 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 8 h.
S-II, 18 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 6 h
Monday, February 15, 2021
Zooming in to a heart of the Heart
Since I have shot many targets with various of focal lengths I'm able to make zoom in series out of my material. This is a nice way to show the fractal nature of our universe, there is always something new to see when the detail level gets higher.
A zoom in series to the Melotte 15 in the IC 1805, the Heat nebula
Click for a large image
Click for a large image
Images are in mapped colors from the emission of an ionized elements, hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen.
NOTE, an apparent size of the Moon is marked in third photo for a scale.
NOTE, an apparent size of the Moon is marked in third photo for a scale.
photos used for the zoom in series
- https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/deep-in-to-my-heart-ic-1805-in-mapped.html
- https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-last-imaging-project-for-this-winter.html
- https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/04/melotte-15-new-revision.html
Thursday, February 11, 2021
APOD by NASA, Astro Anarchy gets published
Astronomy Picture of the Day
My shot of the constellation Cygnus was selected today as an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by NASA. You can see the NASA page here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210211.html
INFO
Original blog post about this image, with technical details, can be seen here:
Monday, February 8, 2021
Cygnus mosaic in visual colors
I have published this image in mapped colors at December 2020, it can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html
I have started this imaging project back at 2010. My aim was to make a high resolution mosaic covering the constellation Cygnus. Work like that takes time and patience, especially since I have worked so, that many of the individual sub mosaics or frames have been published as an individual artworks. Here is a poster format presentation about all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside wide field panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html
As a result I have now a huge 37 panel (And 58 long focal length sub-panel) mosaic panorama covering 28 x 18 degrees of sky. I have collected photons way over 400 hours during past ten years for this photo. The full size mosaic image has a size of about 25.000 x 15.000 pixels.
A photo of five million stars*
Great Mosaic of Cygnus (2010-2020)
28x18 degrees, 97 panels and over 400 hours of exposure time
The full size photo is worth to see! (2700 x 1700 pixels)
An apparent size of the Moon is marked as a scale at bottom left of the picture frame.
This is a large area of sky! (28 x 18 degrees) Image is in visual colours, from the emission of ionized elements in the area.
* I actually counted the stars and in this field of view there are little over five million individual stars!
Orientation
Three supernova remnants, two Wolf Rayet stars and a black hole
Please, click the image for full resolution
Three supernova remnants, two Wolf Rayet stars and a black hole
Please, click the image for full resolution
In the orientation image above, there are three large supernova remnants visible, first the Cygnus Shell W63 , bluish ring at upper left quarter, secondly the large SNR G65.3+5.7 at utmost right and finally the third is a brighter SNR, the Veil nebula just outside of field of view at bottom center. (Image is partly overlapping with large mosaic but I didn't want to include it yet due to artistic composition.)
Beside three supernova remnants there are two Wolf Rayet stars with outer shell formations. NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula at center of the image and the WR 134, it can be seen as a blue arch just right from the Crescent Nebula, near the Tulip nebula.
Next to the Tulip Nebula lays a Black hole Cygnus X-1, it's marked in small closeup image of the Tulip Neula at center right in orientation image above.
Constellation Cygnus is an endless source of celestial wonders, both scientifically and aesthetically. For me, as an visual artist, this are of night sky is very inspiring There are endless amount of amazing shapes and structures, I can spend rest of my life just shooting images from this treasury.
Beside three supernova remnants there are two Wolf Rayet stars with outer shell formations. NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula at center of the image and the WR 134, it can be seen as a blue arch just right from the Crescent Nebula, near the Tulip nebula.
Next to the Tulip Nebula lays a Black hole Cygnus X-1, it's marked in small closeup image of the Tulip Neula at center right in orientation image above.
Constellation Cygnus is an endless source of celestial wonders, both scientifically and aesthetically. For me, as an visual artist, this are of night sky is very inspiring There are endless amount of amazing shapes and structures, I can spend rest of my life just shooting images from this treasury.
THE MOSAIC
Evolution of the mosaic between 2010 and 2020
Click for a large image
Mosaic panels in chronological order
Click for a large image
There are 37 base panels with shorter focal length tools (300mm f2.8 Tokina and 200mm f1.8 Canon) There is also 59 sub-panels used, they are shot with my old 12" Meade and 11" Celestron Edge scopes.
NOTE I recalculated the total exposure time and it's actually way over 600 hours.
Here is a poster format presentation and a list all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside the actual panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html
I have used several optical configurations for this mosaic image during the years. Up to 2014 I was using an old Meade LX200 GPS 12" scope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and baader narrowband filter set. After 2014 I have had 10-micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and the Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set. I have shot many details with a longer focal length, before 2014 by using Meade 12" scope with reducer and after 2014 Celestron EDGE 11" and reducer. Quider camera has been Lodestar and Lodestar II.
Here is a poster format presentation and a list all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside the actual panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html
Equipments used
Couple of close ups to show the resolution
Click for a large image
North america & pelican nebula region
Supernova remnant G65.3+5.7
Cirrus of Western Cygnus
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
