Thursday, March 6, 2025
A Very Deep View to my Soul, IC1848
This is a new photo of the Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia.
A total of 20 hours of H-alpha exposure, along with 6 hours of S-II and O-III combined, allows me to capture intricate details of this relatively bright astronomical cloud of gas and dust.
A Detail of IC1848, the Soul Nebula
Click for a large image, 2100x2300 pixels
Click for a large image, 2100x2300 pixels
A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
Full Resolution Details
Click for a full size, 2100x2300 pixels
Click for a full size, 2100x2300 pixels
Pillar like formations are pointing to a open cluster IC1848
Older photos of the Soul Nebula
Technical details
Processing workflow
Image acquisition, MaximDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS
Levels and curves in PS
Imaging optics,
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer
Mount,
MesuMount Mark II
Cameras,
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz
filters,
Astrodon 5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Total exposure time 30h
H-alpha, 60 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 20 h
O-III,21x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 3h
O-III,21x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 3h
S-II, 15 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 3h
A single calibrated 20 min exposure of H-alpha, Bin 1x1
Click for a full size image.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
HFG1, a Challenging Planetary in Cassiopeia
I have planning to shoot this dim, diffused and large planetary nebula for a long time. The imaging season up here 65N is over in few weeks since we'll loose astronomical darkness for six months due to high latitude.
So far I have collected about 20 hours of exposures of light emitted by a triple ionized oxygen, O-III
I think it's very beautiful as it now but I'll add H-alpha light when ever weather allows.
HFG1
Click for a large image, 2000x2000 pixels
HFG1 in O-III light only
Technical details
Processing workflow
Image acquisition, MaximDL 6
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PotoShop
Levels and curves in PotoShop.
Imaging optics,
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer
Mount,
Mesu Mount Mark II
Cameras,
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz
filters,
Astrodon 5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
O-III, 60 x 1200 s = 20h
Sunday, February 16, 2025
New Tool, a Powerful Dell Precision 7875 Workstation
Workstation computers from Dell are really well-built and come with excellent next-business-day onsite service. I have been using them for a couple of decades for my work. My previous workstation served me well for almost nine years—these kinds of computers do not age as fast as normal consumer PCs.
My old Dell workstation has two ten-core Xeon processors, 128GB of memory, and a decent graphics card. Since I work with 4K and 8K videos, 3D graphics, and run AI locally, my old workstation has become far too slow. It goes to my observatory computer, little overkill for telescope and camera control but works well there.
The new Dell Precision 7875 Workstation features a 96-core AMD Threadripper Pro processor (3.2 – 5.1 GHz), 512GB of RAM, and a 20GB NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada graphics card. It comes with a standard three-year next-business-day onsite service in case anything goes wrong.
My new display is also from Dell—a 40-inch 21:9 curved Thunderbolt hub monitor with a stunning 5K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The curve in the monitor is perfect for correcting perspective distortion, ensuring that straight lines remain visually straight.
I also use an Ergotron monitor arm, so no desk space is wasted, allowing me to position the large display at the optimal distance and orientation with ease
New Workstation and Display
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Pickering's Triangle, Resurrection
This is not exactly a new image of Pickering's Triangle, but it is a completely new revision of it. I have photographed this complex-looking region of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in Cygnus multiple times over the decades. In this latest revision, I have gathered all my exposures of the target and combined them into a new, most detailed version yet.
PICKERING'S TRIANGLE RESURRECTION
Click for a full size, 2700x2300 pixels
A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue
A Full Resolution Detail
Click for a full size, 2000x2000 pixels
Click for a full size, 2000x2000 pixels
Pickering's Triangle in Visual Colors
Click for a full size, 2000x2000 pixels
Visual color version of Sh2-115 glows mostly in red from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue, this combination is very close to a natural color palette
Pickering's Triangle in a Large Context
Click for a full size, 2500x2500 pixels
Pickering's Triangle even a Large Context in Cygnus
Click for a full size, 4000x5000 pixels (27Mb)
This massive mosaic, composed of over 300 panels and around 700 hours of exposure time, showcases the entire constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. The Veil Nebula supernova remnant, including Pickering's Triangle, is visible in the lower right area, slightly off-center. Additionally, two more supernova remnants appear in the image: G65.2+5.7 SNR in the upper right corner and W63, located slightly left of center, seen as a bluish ring formation.Link to the my blog post about this massive photo:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/12/cygnus-mosaic-gets-large.html
Technical Info
This new revision of Pickering's Triangle has a cumulative exposure time of approximately 70 hours. I have compiled all the long focal length data I captured over the years into this single deep image. Various optical configurations and focal lengths were used during this time.
Some of the data was captured using my old MEADE LX200 GPS with a 0.63 focal reducer, a QHY9 camera, and a Baader narrowband filter set. Data from 2015 to 2023 was acquired with a Celestron EDGE HD 11" telescope, an Apogee Alta U16 camera, and an Astrodon narrowband filter set. The most recent data, captured in 2024, was taken with a Celestron EDGE HD 14" telescope, an Apogee Alta U9000M camera, and an Astrodon narrowband filter set. There is also some dimm background data shot with Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera optics.
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