Astro Anarchy

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cygnus Mosaic is getting large, 18 panels now

22 x14 degrees of sky from the constellation Cygnus
The "Chinese Dragon Nebula"

H-alpha emission, 18 panels, mosaic image of Nebulae in Cygnus

Download link for the 2600x3950 pixels image HERE. (Note, about 7,3 meg)
The noise in a background, is not a noise but countless number of stars!

I was busy last night

I started to image about Four a clock! Up here, it's dark enough for astronomical imaging at that time.

My previous project, an eight panel mosaic of Cygnus Nebulae, is starting to grow! I was not planning to shoot so large mosaic but since the first one turned to be so good and funny to do, lots of work though, I decided to go on. The Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens is very fast optically, so the needed exposure time per panel is reasonable. I shot all 12 new panels between Four and Two a clock , Ten hours straight, no pauses.

I will shoot other channels, S-II & O-III, little by little. If weather cooperate, I might have this ready before Christmas. This is the largest mosaic, I have done so far.

The "Chinese Dragon Nebula"

Do you see a Chinese Dragon in upper image?

Some technical information about the image

Original size for the 18 panels mosaic 14.000 x 9000 pixels
Resolution 5,5 arch seconds / pixel
Image center, RA 20h 27s, Dec 43d 30m 45s
Area of this image is about 22 x14 degrees of sky.

Full Moon has an angular diameter of 0,5 degrees, it fits to the area of this image about 1230 times!

Start of the Cygnus project

I started the Cygnus mosaic project by shooting a three panel mosaic from the "Cirrus area"

Blog post can be seen here: http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cirrus-of-cygnus-project-finalized.html

Image in mapped colors, H-a = Green, S-II = Red and O-III = Blue

The second phase was an eight panel mosaic. The blog post can be seen from here:

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

Eight panel mosaic. This image gives an idea, how the large mosaic will look in colors.

Relative sizes of mosaics.

Technical details for the 18 panel mosaic

I have used a very fast camera optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, full open to collect all the data in this mosaic. Due that, total exposure time is relatively short, ~12h, there are some very dim formations clearly visible.

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Levels, curves and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8

Camera, QHY9

Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel

Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha

Exposures for Eighteen panels,

Panel 1

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 2

H-a, 5x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 3

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 4

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 5

H-a, 5x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 6

H-a, 8x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 7

H-a, 6x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 8

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 9

H-a, 4x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 10

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 11

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 12

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 13

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 14

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 15

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 16

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 17

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Panel 18

H-a, 3x900s Binned 1x1

Total exposure time for all panels ~12h

Top of light exposures, there are calibration files shot.

21 Flat frames

99 Bias frames

19 Dark frames

NOTE.
No star or noise reduction, nor sharpening, are used.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

A collection of "Sub mosaics" of Cygnus mosaic

A series of panoramic mosaics.
Mosaics are done from the material used in my large, eight panel, mosaic of Cygnus Nebulae.

The "Cirrus area" of Cygnus

From North America & Pelican Nebulae to the "Cirrus area" at Right.

Four panels mosaic from North America & Pelican Nebulae to Crescent Nebula.

Three panel mosaic from "Cirrus area" of Cygnus to the Tulip Nebula at upper Right.

Two panel mosaic from Butterfly to the Crescent Nebula.

Two panel mosaic from Butterfly to the "Cirrus area" of Cygnus.

Couple of panoramas in natural color palette from narrowband channels

Two panel mosaic from Butterfly to the "Cirrus area" of Cygnus.

From North America & Pelican Nebulae to the "Cirrus area" at Right.

The "Cirrus area" of Cygnus

Three panel mosaic from "Cirrus area" of Cygnus to the Tulip Nebula at upper Right.

I made mosaic panoramas above, since I now have several over lapping images from constellation Cygnus.
The massive resolution, eight panel, mosaic of Nebulae in Cygnus can be seen in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html

Eight panel mosaic of Cygnus, used for the panoramas

An eight panel mosaic of Nebulae in constellation Cygnus.
All panoramic images above are made from this material.

A very large, 7,5 meg and 3000x2000 pixel, version can be seen HERE.