Monday, August 9, 2021
Pickering's Triangle reprocessed with some new data
I originally shot this image at September 2015 and it was selected as a NASA APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) at same month.
After the 2015 I have learned a lot and also shot lots of new data. The data I have shot is taken with much shorter focal length than original data but it was much deeper. I connected some dim background and color data from wide field image to this new version of Pickering's Triangle by using my new yet unpublished imaging method the VARES (variable Resolution imaging)
I kind of like the result, colors are more vivid and background has deeper shades.
I kind of like the result, colors are more vivid and background has deeper shades.
Pickering's Triangle
Please, click for a large image, it's worth it!
Please, click for a large image, it's worth it!
Part of the two frame mosaic of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant, the Pickering's Triangle.
Colors are from the ionized elements, Hydrogen, Sulfur and Oxygen.
S-II = Red, H-alpha = Green and O-III = Blue.
Colors are from the ionized elements, Hydrogen, Sulfur and Oxygen.
S-II = Red, H-alpha = Green and O-III = Blue.
A wide field photo of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant
The Pickering's Triangle can be see at one o'clock position.
My blog post about the wide field shot can be seen HERE.Technical details and more images:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/09/pickerings-triangle-my-first-light-for.html
Sunday, August 1, 2021
A new photo, Monkey Head Nebula, Lower's nebula, Jelly Fish nebula and Messier 35
I shot material for this mosaic image at end of the spring season 2021. I haven't got time to finalize it until now. I kind of like this image, it's very deep and shows the very dim background mist and a very dense starfield of the galaxy plane. Total exposure time with Tokina AT-x 300mm f2,8 camera lens, Apogee u16 Astro camera and Astrodon narrowband filters is around 6 hours, the exposure time with Celestron Edge telescope is around 30 hours.
An other interesting feature in this imaging project is that I did use my VARES-processing method to this.
(Variable Resolution imaging) I have shot the nebulae in this wide field image with a long focal length instrument, the Celestron Edge 11" few years ago. I use this high res material to boost details in the wide field image. But that's not all!
I used the VARES technique to add deepness to my older long focal length images. I added the very dim background nebula data from wide filled images to long focal length images. The result was very good. Now all detailed features in the image, like stars, brighter nebula details and dark nebulae are form high res image data. The dim and relatively featureless data is taken from the wide field image. At the end the both datasets are combined by VARES-processing method to a one very deep and detailed image.
Monkey Head nebula. Messier 35 and the Jellyfish Nebula
Click for a large image!
Click for a large image!
Mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Wider mosaic, from Lower's Nebula to Jellyfish Nebula
Click for a large image! (2500 x 1100 pixels)
Labeled
Click for a large image!
Long focal length images boosted with a very deep wide field data.
Monkey Head nebula, NGC 2175
Click for a large image
The wide field data boosted long focal length image, original photo and details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/03/ngc-2174-monkey-head-nebula-project.html
I think, this was a first image in the World showing the extremely dim lower part, "Teil of the Monkey", of the nebula.
Monkey Head nebula, NGC 2175
Click for a large image
I think, this was a first image in the World showing the extremely dim lower part, "Teil of the Monkey", of the nebula.
Lower's Nebula, Sh2-261
Click for a large image
Click for a large image
The wide field data boosted long focal length image, original photo and details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/01/lowers-nebula.html
Jellyfish Nebula, the supernova remnant IC433
Click for a large image
Click for a large image
The wide field data boosted long focal length image, original photo and details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/01/jellyfish-nebula-ic-443-supernova.html
Monday, July 19, 2021
Voices of Apollo 11
@FORBES
"The Ultimate Tribute To The Fallen Heroes Who Took Us To Moon"
"Metsavainio has created a ‘voices of Apollo 11’ artistic masterpiece to immortalize the mission and its target forever."
The Voices of Apollo 11
are now part of the Moon forever
Click for the larger version of 2500 x 2500 pixels.
Image shows the full Moon made entirely out the text of the transcript of the onboard voice conversations of the Apollo 11 mission. There is nothing else in this photo-based image. Just letters.
The Voices
I downloaded NASA's original full transcript of Apollo 11's onboard voice conversations. The idea was to turn this text into an image of the Moon. After a few weeks of intense work at a feverish pace my tribute was ready. Now the Moon is made up entirely of Apollo 11 voice transcription letters.
This is also a tribute to the entire Apollo 11 team: Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
This is also a tribute to the entire Apollo 11 team: Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
WHY?
I was most gratified and deeply moved when Michael Collins —the Apollo 11 & Gemini 10 astronaut, author, explorer and artist— tweeted following kind words about my work on April 19th, 2021: https://twitter.com/AstroMCollins/status/1384194949009211393
The news of his passing, just nine days later, hit me all the harder — a very emotional moment for me. Out of the blue, I got inspired to create this artwork. I absolutely had to do it right away, which I did.
Michael Collins was affectionately referred to as “the loneliest man in history” for being the command module pilot who flew solo in space behind the Moon and without radio contact with anyone while his colleagues, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, set foot on the Moon for the first time in history. Michael was also an artist. His iconic photos made from Moon orbit are true art and part of mankind's greatest cultural heritage treasure.
A similar solitude gripped me while I was creating this tribute image. For being an astronomical photographer and a visual artist often is a very lonely job. Especially this time as I was deeply emotional throughout my creative process for this artwork. Even though I never met him personally, the end of his Earthly mission meant more to me than I was prepared for. I needed to make this photo-based artwork to process the inner storm of my thoughts and feelings.
The Apollo 11 landing site is marked by two red letters.
4K VIDEO
1-minute 4K video about the "Voices of Apollo 11" artwork. Please watch in full screen for the best viewing experience.
The music "Fly me to the Moon"
Frank Sinatra's 1964 recording of "Fly Me to the Moon" became closely associated with NASA's Apollo space program. A copy of the song was played on a Sony TC-50 portable cassette player on the Apollo 10 mission which orbited the Moon,[44] and also on Apollo 11 before the first landing on the Moon.[45] Source Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_Me_to_the_Moon
Material used for the artwork
Apollo 11 onboard voice transcription
Click to download the PDF-document, 5.5 MB
My photo of a Full Moon
Click for a larger image.
Click for a larger image.
I used my twenty-year-old photo of the Full Moon to create this text based artwork.
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Photo number 8, The Chinese Dragon
Chinese Dragon,
This is the only image in the World showing the constellation Cygnus so deep and detailed
Image is reduced to size of 2600 x 4200 pixels from the original 30.000 x 17.000 pixels. Click for a large image, it's worth it! Mosaic image was shot between September 2010 and December 2020
NEW, a Zoomable image
Location in the Great Mosaic of the Milky Way
Click for a large image, area of interest ids marked as white rectangle
The Dragon, 4K-MOVIE
Duration ~one minute
Duration ~one minute
About this photo
This photo means a lot to me personally. Not only due to large amount of work and time I spent with this area of sky, it also has a deeper meaning for me.When you spent a decade working with a one photo to get it ready, it's like a long marriage. The passionate love is slowly turning to a deeper connection and at the end you'll grow together and can't live without the others company. As in marriage, during the years I have had friction in the relationship, even hate. But after desperate times the love always wins.
I'm a perfectionist, when dealing with my photography. This feature is essential for a great results but it also can cause problems in relationship. There have been times when I almost get a divorce and started looking for another, easier target since I couldn't get out all of the extreme dim and difficult details I wanted to see and show. I didn't even know, if they are there since there wasn't any references to compare. I didn't give up and finally after long nights and hundreds of exposure hours I get what I was after. Now we can grow old together and I know for sure, I will always find something new and existing from my love one, the Chinese Dragon..
Total exposure time is way over 600 hours, they are shot between 2010 and 2020. Some areas of this mosaic panorama required more exposure time than others. There are two very diffused supernova remnants in this mosaic. Both are large and extremely dim. I have used about 170 hours of exposures for them alone! There aren't any deep and large enough photos around showing them well.
I have started this imaging project back at 2010. My aim was to make a high resolution mosaic covering the whole constellation Cygnus. Work like that takes time and patience, especially since I have worked so, that many of the individual sub mosaics or frames can be published as an individual artworks. Here is a poster format presentation about all of the longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside longer focal length panels.
(3300 x 5500 pixels)
A location for each photo is marked at the older version of the mosaic image of the constellation Cygnus at center.
As a result I have now a huge 95 panel mosaic panorama covering 28 x 18 degrees of sky. I have collected photons way over 600 hours during past ten years for this photo. The full size mosaic image has a size of about 25.000 x 15.000 pixels.
Two + one supernova remnants, two Wolf Rayet stars and a black hole
There are two large supernova remnants visible in this photo, first the Cygnus Shell W63 , bluish ring at upper left quarter, secondly the large SNR G65.3+5.7 at utmost right.
Just outside of the field of view lays the famous Veil Nebula SNR at bottom middle.
Just outside of the field of view lays the famous Veil Nebula SNR at bottom middle.
Beside two 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.
Constellation Cygnus is an endless source of celestial wonders, both scientifically and aesthetically. For me, as an visual artist, this area 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.
Please, click the image for full resolution
Note. The third supernova remnant is marked at this image, it's just outside of the actual field of view. I left it out on purpose due to compositional reasons.
Technical details
Original resolution in pixels, 25.000 x 15.000
The NASA astronomer wrote about this image:
A version of this photo was selected as an Astronomical Picture Of the Day by NASA
Original resolution in pixels, 25.000 x 15.000
The NASA astronomer wrote about this image:
In brush strokes of interstellar dust and glowing gas, this beautiful skyscape is painted across the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy near the northern end of the Great Rift and the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Composed over a decade with 400 hours of image data, the broad mosaic spans an impressive 28x18 degrees across the sky. Alpha star of Cygnus, bright, hot, supergiant Deneb lies at the left. Crowded with stars and luminous gas clouds Cygnus is also home to the dark, obscuring Northern Coal Sack Nebula and the star forming emission regions NGC 7000, the North America Nebula and IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula, just left and a little below Deneb. Many other nebulae and star clusters are identifiable throughout the cosmic scene. Of course, Deneb itself is also known to northern hemisphere skygazers for its place in two asterisms, marking a vertex of the Summer Triangle, the top of the Northern Cross.
This is a large area of sky! (28 x 18 degrees) The mosaic photo is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Image has over five million stars visible in it.
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.
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.
A version of this photo was selected as an Astronomical Picture Of the Day by NASA
Mosaic panels in chronological order
Here is an image about individual panels shot for this large mosaic image.
There are 37 base panels with shorter focal length tools (200mm 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.
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
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
Evolution of the mosaic between 2010 and 2020
Click for a large image
Click for a large image
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