COPYRIGHT, PLEASE NOTE
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
A starless Pickering's Triange
As far as I know, I was the first who published starless nebula images back in 2007. At the time the feedback was less than positive.
The reason to publish such a unorthodox images was that the starless version is a part of my processing workflow and it can sometimes show more than the actual image.
I have used this technique ever since and published some starless images now and then.
Starless images are very powerful, when I want to dig out some really dim objects in a very dense starfield. It makes processing so much easier, I don't need to be careful not to blow up the stars.
Normally all the stars are placed back with a zero data lost after processing is done.
Starless images are also a great help to see the actual structure in the nebula since human brains has a tendency to form a quasi logical shapes out of the random cloud of dots, like stars are.
Please, click for a large image, it's worth it!
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/09/pickerings-triangle-my-first-light-for.html
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.
I kind of like the result, colors are more vivid and background has deeper shades.
Please, click for a large image, it's worth it!
Colors are from the ionized elements, Hydrogen, Sulfur and Oxygen.
S-II = Red, H-alpha = Green and O-III = Blue.
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.
Click for a large image!
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.
Click for a large image
Click for a large image
Monday, July 19, 2021
Voices of Apollo 11
@FORBES
are now part of the Moon forever
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.
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.
Click for a larger image.