Saturday, November 17, 2012
Witch's Broom Nebula
Filaments in the Western Veil
Supernova remnant in Cygnus
Image is in visual spectrum, composed from H-a and O-III narrowband channels.
This is a third detail image from the Veil Nebula supernova remnant from this Autumn season.
Two others can be seen here, IC 1340 in Eastern Veil and the Pickering's Triangle.
The Veil Nebula locates in constellation Cygnus at distance of about 1400 light years. The angular size of the image is close to size of the full Moon. The bright star at upper right corner is 52 Cygni, it's a foreground star and unrelated to the supernova remnant.
Orientation
Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle.
Image in HST-palette
19.11.2012
I made a HST-palette version out of this. I have shot the Veil Nebula with much wider field instruments, Tokina AT-X 300 f2.8 and the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 cameraoptics. I took the color information from the wide field image and used it with this detail image. Here is the result.
Colors for this HST-palette image are borrowed from a wider field one, image can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/03/veil-nebula-reprocessed-with-some-new.html
19.11.2012
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/03/veil-nebula-reprocessed-with-some-new.html
An animated image shows the difference between ionized Oxygen and Hydrogen
Click for a large image
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
15 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 5h
6 x 1200s exposures for the O-III, emission of ionized Oxygen = 2h
4 x 1200s exposures for the S-II, emission of ionized Sulfur = 1h 20min.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Astro Anarchy gets published
Winner image of the Cloudy Nights forum Imaging/Sketching Contest
October 2012
IC 1340, Part of the Eastern Veil Nebula in Cygnus
RA: 20h56m 45.8s DE:+31 degrees07' 17"
Original blog post about this image, with more images and technical details:
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Pickering's Triangle, project finalized
The Pickering's Triangle
A detail of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
This combination is generally called to HST-palette. It's used originally by the Hubble Space Telescope.
I managed to shoot enough data for the S-II channel, to build a three channel color image, last night.
It was very windy and i had hard time with guiding. There was some serious technical difficulties with my gears. After spending ten busy hours up in the observatory, I had only four 20 min. S-II frames, duh...
Pickering's Triangle, Simeis 3-188, is a small part of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus.
Veil Nebula is a cloud of ionized gas and dust, leftovers from an exploded star. The star went off some 5000-8000 years ago at distance of about 1470 light years. This, relatively faint target, is difficult to image due to the large angular diameter, about three degrees, and a dense star field.
Orientation
Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle, the apparent size of the Moon can be seen at lower right corner.
Image in natural colors
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
15 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 5h
9 x 1200s exposures for the O-III, emission of ionized Oxygen = 3h
4x1200s exposures for the S-II, emission of ionized Sulfur = 1h 20min.
Ps.
An animation, stars vs. starless
Sometimes I'm publishing starless versions of my images. The actual nebula stands out better by this way, since human brains has a habit to form false shapes from a group of random dots, like stars.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Pickering's Triangle in Ha/OIII light
A somehow clear night for a long time!
Last night I was able to shoot O-III light (Light emitted by ionized oxygen.) for my latest project, the Pickering's Triangle in the Veil Nebula. I manged to collect three hours of O-III light, ones again clouds ruined about two hours of exposures. I'll shoot the S-II channel (Light emitted by ionized Sulfur.), as soon as the weather supports, for a three channel color image.
The Pickering's Triangle
A detail in the Veil Nebula supernova remnant
Two color image from H-a and O-III, image is in natural colors from narrowband channels. Emission of hydrogen can be seen as Red and emission of oxygen as Blue.
Pickering's Triangle is a small part of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus.
Veil Nebula is a cloud of ionized gas and dust, leftovers from an exploded star. The star went off some 5000-8000 years ago at distance of about 1470 light years. This, relatively faint target, is difficult to image due to the large angular diameter, about three degrees, and a dense star field.
Orientation
Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle, the apparent size of the Moon can be seen at lower right corner.
An animated image
Red = Hydrogen, Blue = Oxygen. The last image shows channels combined.
An experimental starless image
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
15 x 1200s exposures for H-alpha emission = 5h
9 x 1200s exposures for O-III, emission of ionized oxygen = 3h
Ps.
This is my second Veil Nebula detail from this Autumn season. Previous photograph, IC 1340, can be seen here: http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/10/ic-1340-project-finalized.html
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Meet your maker
"The creation of Adam"
An updated version of Michelangelo's fresco in Sistine Chapel ceiling, an original artwork from the year 1512
Info about the original fresco in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam
Meet your maker
We all are children of supernovae
The most common elements, like carbon and nitrogen, are created in the cores of most stars, fused from lighter elements like hydrogen and helium. The heaviest elements, like iron, however, are only formed in the massive stars which end their lives in supernova explosions. Even heavier elements are born in the extreme conditions of the explosion itself.
Without dying stars, life would not be possible. Our blood has iron in the hemoglobin which is vital to our ability to breath. We need oxygen in our atmosphere to breathe. Nitrogen enriches our planet's soil.
Without supernovae, we can have gas planets, stars and galaxies but not cars, cows, solid planets, humans or any life. We all are children of supernova explosions.
Simeis 147, a supernova remnant in constellation Taurus
Technical details and other info about the Simeis 147 (Sh2-240) can be seen in my blog post here:
I finalized this image at February 2012, the total exposure time is about 30h.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
A Chinese Dragon
Chinese Dragon Nebula in constellation Cygnus
Click for a large image
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html
Click for a large image
The very large, 18-panels, mosaic of the Cygnus was my main work at Autumn season 2011.
I named it to the Chinese Dragon Nebula due to reason seen in the image above.
Image spans 22 degrees horizontally. (22 degrees = 44 full Moons side by side in the sky)
Original blog post about Cygnus mosaic, with technical details, can be seen here:
Heart and Soul Nebulae, reprocessed
Since the weather up here has been less than supportive for astronomical imaging for a long time, I have played with an older data.
Heart & Soul Nebulae
IC1805 & IC1848
Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope) from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.
My photos, from several years, are used to combine this panoramic image of IC 1805 & 1848.
This emission nebula area is located in constellation Cassiopeia at distance of about 7500 light years.
I have made a scale study to show the apparent scale in the sky, it can be seen here:
Image is in visual spectrum, mixed from the same narrowband material, than image above.
Images used for the panorama with technical details
Monday, November 5, 2012
ART
I have seen this phrase somewhere, can't remember when and where though.
Image at the background is imaged at 2011.
It's part of the very large, 18-panel, mosaic image of Cygnus constellation.
Details here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html
I did this, since beside being an astronomical photographer, this is an art form for me.
All my images can be seen in my portfolio: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/
Saturday, November 3, 2012
An experimental 3D-animation of the Pelican Nebula
Since the Weather doesn't support new images, I'm publishing some experimental work here.
I have tested a new method to publish my 3D-images as a form of Lenticular prints.
For this technique to work, I need series of images from different angles, in this case 24 images are needed.
Lenticular printing is actually an old technique but in past few years it has become much more sophisticated.
The results can be stunning visually, image plane disappears and object floats in and outside of the frame.
Since astronomical objects are too far away, no real parallax can be imaged. Doe to that, I have developed a method to turn my images to various 3D-formats. My work flow is based on scientific data from the object, distance and the source of ionization are usually known. The different types of the nebulae has typical structures, pillar like formations must point to the source of ionization, the radiation pressure forms kind of hollow area, inside of the nebula, around newly born stars, dark nebulae must be at front of the emission ones to show, etc... rest of the missing information is then replaced with an artistic vision.
The whole process is pretty much like sculpting!
I have tested a new method to publish my 3D-images as a form of Lenticular prints.
For this technique to work, I need series of images from different angles, in this case 24 images are needed.
Lenticular printing is actually an old technique but in past few years it has become much more sophisticated.
The results can be stunning visually, image plane disappears and object floats in and outside of the frame.
Since astronomical objects are too far away, no real parallax can be imaged. Doe to that, I have developed a method to turn my images to various 3D-formats. My work flow is based on scientific data from the object, distance and the source of ionization are usually known. The different types of the nebulae has typical structures, pillar like formations must point to the source of ionization, the radiation pressure forms kind of hollow area, inside of the nebula, around newly born stars, dark nebulae must be at front of the emission ones to show, etc... rest of the missing information is then replaced with an artistic vision.
The whole process is pretty much like sculpting!
The Pelican Nebula in Cygnus as an animation
Only real elements from the original 2D-image are used for the animation
NOTE! Let the animation load, ~7MB
This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.
An original 2D-image, used for the animation
Image above is a small part of the very large mosaic image of the Cygnus constellation
Original blog post about this mosaic, with technical details and large images:
PS.
Here are other 3D-formats out of the same material
Stereopairs
For Parallel vision method
For Cross vision method
An anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D
You'll need Red/Cyan eyeglasses to see this image as 3D.
Red lens goes to Left eye.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
An experimental 3D-animation of the Lagoon Nebula, M8
I have tested a new method to publish my 3D-images as a form of Lenticular prints.
For this technique to work, I need series of images from different angles, in this case 24 images are needed.
Lenticular printing is actually an old technique but in past few years it has become much more sophisticated.
The results can be stunning visually, image plane disappears and object floats in and outside of the frame.
Since astronomical objects are too far away, no real parallax can be imaged. Doe to that, I have developed a method to turn my images to various 3D-formats. My work flow is based on scientific data from the object, distance and the source of ionization are usually known. The different types of the nebulae has typical structures, pillar like formations must point to the source of ionization, the radiation pressure forms kind of hollow area, inside of the nebula, around newly born stars, dark nebulae must be at front of the emission ones to show, etc... rest of the missing information is then replaced with an artistic vision.
The whole process is pretty much like sculpting!
Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8, as an animation
NOTE. Only real data from the original 2D-image is used for the 3D-animation!
Generally images about space objects shows them flat as a paintings in a canvas but in reality, they are volumes floating in three dimensional space. The purpose of my work is to show how I personally see those distant objects in my mind and they are fun to do!
The accuracy of the model depends how well I have known, figured out and guessed. Right or wrong, if my 3D experiments are giving something to think, they are working well.
Original 2D-image used for the animation
Technical details and information of M8 can be seen in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/06/m8-lagoon-nebula.html
My previous GIF-animations can be seen here:
IC 1396, http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/10/an-experimental-3d-animation-from-my.html
NGC 6752, http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/10/an-experiental-3d-animation-from-my_15.html
Veil Nebula, http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/10/an-experiental-3d-animation-from-my.html
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Happy Halloween
A ghostly figure from deep space, IC 63
Happy Halloween!
I originally shot this target at Halloween night of the year 2010.
I didn't plan to shoot a seasonal theme image, just followed my imaging plan. When the image first time appeared in my screen at Halloween night, I felt cold fingers at my back...
Original image and the imaging data can be seen here:
A version in HST-palette
Sunday, October 21, 2012
I want to know
I WANT TO KNOW
I get inspired by a poster, seen in TV-series X-files.
(Mulder's poster hangs in the wall of X-files basement office.)
It turned out, that it was made just for the TV-series by the production team.
Images used in the "I want to know" poster above are shot by me.
Messier 104: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/05/final-version-of-m104-sombrero-galaxy.html
The Moon: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/09/moon-images-from-new-point-of-view.html
New imaging project, the "Pickering's Triangle"
Last night was clear! I managed to get ~5h H-alpha exposures for the "Pickering's Triangle" in the Veil Nebula supernova remnant.
This is a dim target, I'll need additional exposures for this. Together, with S-II and O-III exposures, about 15 more hours is needed for a good signal to noise.
"Pickering's Triangle"
A detail from the Veil Nebula supernova remnant
H-alpha, 15x1200s =5h
A closeup
Orientation in the Veil Nebula
Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels and curvesin PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
165 x 1200s exposures for H-alpha emission = 5h
Saturday, October 20, 2012
EPIC II
Testing of the theory, part 2
Any phrase looks epic, if placed in front of an astronomical image...
Image used at background is an image shot by me at 2010.
Details can be seen here:
Ps.
I got this idea from Professor Matt McBee, thanks Matt.
Friday, October 19, 2012
EPIC
Testing of the theory
Any phrase looks epic, if placed in front of an astronomical image...
Image used at background is my first light for the Autumn season 2012.
Details can be seen here:
Ps.
I got this idea from Professor Matt McBee, thanks Matt.
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