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Monday, January 30, 2012

"What?" Project finalized



"?"


Image in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen. 
North is Right. Click for a large image!

I shot data for ionized Sulfur and Oxygen last night and now I can compose a three channel RGB-image.
This cosmic question mark, in constellation Cepheus, contains following objects; At top, Cederblad 214(Ced 214) surrounded by NGC 7822, a dot like nebula at the bottom is known as Sharpless 170,(Sh2-170). Image spans over Five degrees vertically. Distance from my observatory, is ~2750 light years and it spans about 40 light years.

Total exposure time is about 9h with an ultra fast Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the QHY9 astronomical camera.

EDIT.

This image get selected as a Space Picture of the Week by the National Geographic magazine. 
You can see the story HERE




Couple of closeups to show the resolution
Not bad for a 200mm camera lens





A natural color composition
From emission of ionized elements

Narrow band channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and 
B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. North is Right.
Note! 
A gray circle, at top Right, shows the apparent size of the full Moon.
(Moon has an angular size of 30', that's 0,5 degrees)


Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 13x1200s + 10x900s = 7h
O-III 1h and S-II 1h, total 9 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.




Sunday, January 29, 2012

What?


"?"

A gray scale image of the Hydrogen alpha emission line. Click for a large image!

For a long time we have had clear weather, freezing too. I have spent couple of night shooting some new material. This cosmic question mark, in constellation Cepheus, contains following objects; At top, Cederblad 214 (Ced 214) surrounded by NGC 7822, a dot like nebula at the bottom is known as Sharpless 170,(Sh2-170).  Image spans about three and half degrees vertically. 

Total exposure time is about 7h with an ultra fast Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the QHY9 astronomical camera. I'll shoot other channels, emission of Oxygen and Sulfur, later, for a color image.


Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~4,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 13x1200s + 10x900s
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.


Monday, January 23, 2012

Large print out of the Cygnus nebulae




A framed photograph of the Cygnus Nebulae and my beautiful wife, Anna, as a scale.

The size of the picture is 100 x 170cm (39,4 x 67 inch). It has been printed on acid free premium satin photo paper with a HP Z3200, 12 color, photo printer. I'm very happy with the quality of the print. Original file is so large and detailed, that the image is very sharp and all the stars are absolute pinpoints from edge to edge. I have calculated, that I can print out a sharp copy at size of about 3 x 5m, if I want!

I found the frame, seen in the picture, from a local Framing shop, it's an old, late 1800, gilded wooden frame. The print is then made to match to sizes of the frame. The result looks like an old Baroque painting.

Original image, in the picture above, can be found here with technical details:


Ps.
The frame and framing are bought from Taide ja Kehys Jokela.
The print job is done by the Artwall.




Sunday, January 22, 2012

A panorama from Simeis 147 to IC 405 & 410




Panoramic image from a constellation Taurus

A three panel mosaic in HST-palette from  ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen. North is Right.

Image above spans about ten degrees, 600', sky horizontally, that's an area of 20 full Moons side by side. 
At Left, a supernova remnant Simeis 147 (Sharpless 240). IC 405 and 410 can be seen at Right. I shot three relatively short exposures for the panorama, about an hour each, since I had shot both main objects earlier at Autumn 2011, with much longer integration time. (Technical details can be seen at end of this post.)
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha alone is about 20h.


Panorama as a natural color composition

Narrowband channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. Image is in real orientation in the sky, North is up.


Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.

Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~4,5 arcseconds/pixel
H-a for three panels 3h.

Exposures for the Simeis 147

H-alpha 34x900s, Binned 1x1
H-alpha 14x1800s, Binned 1x1
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha is ~13h
O-III & S-II channels are from an older image, it can be seen here

Exposures for IC 405 & 410

New exposures H-alpha 13x900s,
S-II and O-III information are from an older image

Total exposure time for Hydrogen, ~20h

Friday, January 13, 2012

Cygnus zoom in series




Weather, up here 65N, doesn't give any support so I made an other zoom in series.
This time I'm zooming from 23x14 to 0,5x0,7 degrees of sky at the are of NGC 7000 in Cygnus.
Older series can be seen in my portfolio: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p162076373

I have shot many targets with several focal lengths. 
Due that, I will publish some of my material as an image sets, with different field of view and detail levels.
The fractal nature of our universe stands out nicely by this way and it will make the orientation more easy.

Many times, it's difficult to understand the image scale of astronomical images.
Due that, I will add a Moon circle in some of the images to show the angular scale in a sky. 
The full Moon has an angular size of ~30 arc minutes, that's equal to ~0,5 degrees.


Cygnus zoom in series, a study of the apparent scale in the sky.
Note. The apparent size of the full Moon is marked as a gray circle at lover Right corner.

Images are in mapped colors from emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen & B=Oxygen.

Location in the Sky, star map overlay



Images used in this series:

A giant, 18-panels, mosaic of the Cygnus constellation with 200mm canon EF at f1.8:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html

North America and Pelican Nebulae with 300mm Tokina AT-X at f2.8:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ngc-7000-north-america-pelican-nebulae.html

Closeup of North America Nebula with Meade LX 200 GPS, reduced to f5 ~2000mm:
 http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ngc-7000-closeup-hst-palette-preview.html






Sunday, January 8, 2012

Cygnus collection as a poster




Treasures of Cygnus 


I made a collection out of my images from the Cygnus constellation.
At center lays a giant 18-panels mosaic of Cygnus nebulae as a natural color composition. Surrounding closeup images, seen in large central mosaic,  are in HST-palette. All images are shot with the Baader narrow band filter set, H-alpha, S-II & O-III. 
Original, full resolution, poster has a massive size, ~21.000 x 16.000 pixels!

All images used in this presentation, with technical details and labels, can be found from my portfolio at: 



Ps.
This mid winter has been worst I can remember up here 65N... Over two Months 100% cloud cover and it doesn't look any better in near future either. Very frustrating. 



Friday, January 6, 2012

A video from Autumn 2011 images




Autumn season 2011



Three minute video, 640x480 pixels, from my images of Autu mn 2011.
(If you have a slow connection, please, hit the pause and wait movie to load)

Here is a direct link to my main work from last Autumn, a giant 18-panel mosaic of Cygnus nebulae:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html





Saturday, December 31, 2011

Last day of 2011, a collection of images.






Happy New Year 2012


Since this is a last day of year 2011, I have made a collection of images from the Autumn season 2011. As usually at this time of year, the weather has been very cloudy, up here 65N. Last couple of months has been blocked 100% by clouds. I managed to use every clear moment, so there are quite a few images from this Autumn, including my main work, a giant 18-panel mosaic from the Cygnus constellation.


A slideshow
click > to start


All images, in this slideshow, can be seen in my portfolio with a technical details:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p909207080


First image for the season was the Propeller Nebula in Cygnus

Original blog post, with a technical details, can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html



Last image for the current season was the 18-panel mosaic from the Cygnus constellation

Original blog post, with a technical details, can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html





Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Saturnalia and happy new year!




Clear skies to all!

J-P Metsävainio & Astro Anarchy observatory


Ps.
Original image, used in this manipulation, can be seen here:

Ps2.




Monday, December 19, 2011

Cygnus mosaic as a stereo pair 3D






Parallel vision stereo pairs
Cross vision stereo pairs at end of the post

Parallel vision 3D



Closeup 1


Closeup2


Closeup 3

Other 3D-formats:
Original 2D:




Cross vision stereo pairs

Cross vision 3D


Closeup 1


Closeup 2


Closeup 3

Other 3D-formats:
Original 2D:






NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression. 


Cugnus mosaic as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D




3D-NOTE!
You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see images as 3D.If you have a Red and Blue filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.



Note, a largish file, 1900x1200 pixels and 3,5 meg.

Other 3D-formats:

Original 2D:


Some details from the large image above

Det.1

Det. 2

Det 3.



Ps.

Please leave a comment, I'll like to know, how many of my readers are able to watch my 3D-experiments?
Do you prefer an anaglyph method or stereo pair free view? 

If there are very few readers interested about this kind of "nontraditional" and experimental astronomical  image processing, I'm not going to post them in my blog. 
I will publish them only in my 3D-portfolio under the Zenfolio service:

Monday, December 12, 2011

November Challenge winner, IC 405






This mapped color image of IC 405 & 410 was a monthly challenge winner in CCD imaging and processing forum at Cloudynights.com


Original blog post, with technical details, can be found here: 


Friday, December 9, 2011

Cygnus mosaic, 18-panels and 22 x 14 degrees of sky




Finally finalized, with a lots of work... uh


NOTE! A large image, ~1200x2000 pixels and ~3Mb
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, 
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
The "noise" in background is not a noise but countless number of stars!

Even larger, 3500 x 2200 pixels and ~10Mb, image can be seen from HERE.
(Original resolution is about 15.000 x 10.000 pixels.)

Some technical information about the image:
  • Original size for the 18 panels mosaic ~15.000 x10.000 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!

A cropped images, to show the resolution
(Image size is reduced)


A detail from the North America and Pelican Nebulae area.
More closeups in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cygnus-project-grande-finale.html


A closeup from the "Cirrus" area of the large panorama.



Image in visual spectrum

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements, 
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. this palette is very close to a visual spectrum. NOTE! A large image, ~1920x1200 pixels and ~3Mb

A Gray scale image of Hydrogen alpha emission
can be seen HERE  (Note, about 7,3 meg)


Orientation in the sky
overlay with a star map

Constellation Cygnus



This is a third expansion for this mosaic

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


Three panel mosaic of Cirrus of Cygnus.


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


An eight panel mosaic. 



All mosaics, made so far from the Cygnus constellation.



An experimental starless image to show the actual nebula





(NEW) An experimental 3D-study about this area
Note.  This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.

3D-NOTE!
You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see images as 3D.If you have a Red and Blue filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.

Click an image for a 1900 x 1200 pixels version!

Other 3D-studies and  viewing methods in my portfolio:



Technical details for the 18 panel mosaic


Panels shot for this 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, ~22h, 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
Filters used, Baader 7nm H-alpha, S-II & O-III

Here are all technical data for the H-alpha emission line:

I had ready made eight panel mosaic with all three emission line, H-a, S-II and O-III  I managed to collect very little new color data but I had some earlier images from this area. I used all of them to finalize this color composition. Gaps between the color data are filled with an averaged colors from surrounding color data.

Here are links to older images used for the missing color data

North America and the Pelican Nebulae: 

Lower parts of previous image:

Sharpless 119, Sh2-119:

The Crescent Nebula, a wide field image: