Monday, December 17, 2012
Heart Nebula collection
I collected my images of the Heart nebula in this blog post. Most of the images are reprocessed with my new method. This new technique will provide better color handling, softer look and high details at the same time.
I have shot many targets with instruments of different focal lengths, this makes possible to show the fractal nature of our universum, more and more details shows up as focal length gets longer.
Be sure to click the images to see them at full glory.
Heart Nebula, collection of IC 1805 images
Zooming to the heart of the Heart, Melotte 15.
Zooming to the heart of the Heart, Melotte 15.
Heart & Soul Nebulae
IC 1805 in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 190 (Sh2-190) in Cassiopeia
Ra 02h 32m 36s Dec +61° 29′ 2″
Center parts of the Heart Nebula
Melotte 15, the heart of the Heart
Tip of the Heart Nebula, a closeup
IC 1795, a bright area at the tip of the Heart Nebula
INFO
The "Heart Nebula", IC1805 locates about 7500 light years away in constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glow of ionized elements in a gas cloud and some darker dust lanes.
In a very center of the nebula, lays Melotte 15, it contains few very bright stars, nearly 50 times mass of our Sun, and many dim ones. The solar wind, a radiation pressure, from massive stars makes the gas twist to a various shapes.
A study about an apparent scale in the sky
Note, a Moon size circle as a scale, click for a large image!
Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Technical data
Information for all of the images in this post, can be found from my portfolio:
Messier 27, the Dumbbell Nebula
I reprocessed this image since weather doesn't support imaging up here and my processing work flow is somehow different now. My new work flow produces softer images with high details.
Messier 27, the "Dumbbell Nebula"
Ra 19h 59m 36.340s Dec +22° 43′ 16.09″
M27 in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Click for a large image.
The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as a Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light years. It has a large angular diameter as a planetary nebula, about 8 x 5,6 arc minutes. (Rarely imaged outer halo is not included, it can be seen in my image. With an outer shell, the diameter is over 15'' (more than a size of the half a Moon)
Planetary nebulae are shells of gas shed by stars late in their life cycles after using up all of their nuclear fuel. The star then ejects a gaseous shell, which is illuminated by its extremely hot central star, a core left from the original star. n this image, the central star is clearly visible at very center of the nebula.
M27's central star has a magnitude of 13.5 and is an extremely hot blueish dwarf with a temperature of about 85,000 K. Our own star, the Sun, is expected to undergo the same process in a couple of billion years.
A closeup from the image center,
the central star shines at magnitude 13,5
M27 in visual colors
Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Click for a large image.
Closeup
A mapped color closeup with a different orientation.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 6,5Hz
Image Scale, 0,75 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures H-alpha 14x1200s, binned 1x1
2 x S-II 1x600s, binned 3x3
6 x O-III 1x600s, binned 2x2
A single 20 min. H-alpha light frame
Calibrated with Bias corrected flat and Dark masters in CCDStack
1200 seconds of light from the ionized Hydrogen with Meade LX200 12" @ f5, Baader 7nm H-a filter and a cooled astrocam QHY9. Image is scale down ~50% from the original.
At the time of imaging, the seeing was kind of good, FWHM around 2,5.
At the time of imaging, the seeing was kind of good, FWHM around 2,5.
Original version, from 2009, of Messier 27 can be seen here
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Soul Nebula, up close & personal
In this blog post of mine, I'm showing a collection of the Soul Nebula images. Some of them are shot in previous years and some at this Autumn season. All images are reprocessed since I have now a better technique.
IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula"
Ra 02h 51m 36.24s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Soul nebula in wider field image
In this wide field image, the Soul Nebula is shown with its neighbor, the Heart nebula.
Image is shot with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens, Baader narrowband filters and the QHY9 cooled astronomical camera.
Info
Soul Nebula, (Sh2-199, LBN 667) is an emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. IC 1848 is a cluster inside Soul Nebula. Distance is about 7.500 light years. This complex is a Eastern neighbor of IC 1805, the "Heart Nebula" and they are often mentioned together as Heart and Soul.
Closeups of the Soul Nebula
Images are shot with a Meade LX200 12" telescope
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A two frame mosaic from previous images.
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Orientation
The previous closeups are marked in this image as a white rectangles.
A collection of images in visual spectrum
Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Technical details
All technical data for the mages in this blog post can be found from my portfolio.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The Pelican Nebula reprocessed
I reprocessed this image since weather doesn't support imaging up here and my processing work flow is somehow different now. My new work flow produces much softer images, I think.
The "Pelican Nebula"
Ra 20h 50m 48s Dec +44° 20′ 60"
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A closeup
Info
The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC5070 and IC5067) is an Hydrogen emission region associated with the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The nebula resembles a pelican in shape, hence the name. The Pelican Nebula is , close to Deneb, and divided from its brighter, larger neighbor, the North America Nebula, by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. Distance is about 1800 light years
Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Orientation
The area of interest is marked with a white rectangle. This image shows a large portion of constellation Cygnus, North America Nebula, NGC 7000 at right and Pelican Nebula at left. This image is a small part of very large mosaic image of the Cygnus.
Image showing a light emitted by the ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha
Technical details
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Camera QHY9,
Optics Meade LX200 GPS 12" forced to @ f4.65
Guiding with SXV-AO active optics unit 11Hz
Filters
Baader H-alpha 7nm, 6h, 20 min subs
Baader O-III 8,5nm 1h, 10 min. subs binned 3x3
S-II 1,40h, 10 min subs binned 3x3
Original processing can be seen here:
Ps.
A study about an apparent size in the sky
More info in here:
The size of the Moon (0.5 degrees) is marked at first image in the series.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The Wizard Nebula reprocessed
I reprocessed this image since weather doesn't support imaging up here and my processing work flow is somehow different now. My new work flow produces much softer images, I think.
NGC 7380, Sh2-1142, the "Wizard Nebula", in Cepheus
Ra 22h 47m 0s Dec +58° 06′ 00″
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A closeup
Info
NGC 7380 is a catalog number of the open star cluster inside Wizard nebula, SH2-142.
Nebula locates in constellation Cepheus, about 7000 light years from my home.
Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
An experimental starless version
This image shows just the gas formation, without stars interfering.
Previous version
same raw data is used here
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 6,5Hz
Image Scale, 0,75 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures H-alpha 15x1200s, binned 1x1
S-II 1x1200s, binned 4x4
O-III 1x1200s, binned 4x4
Beside data here, a color information from an older wide field image is used.
Image can be seen here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/02/sh2-142-wizard-nebula-wide-field.html
A study about an apparent scale in a sky
Monday, December 10, 2012
Elephant's Trunk nebula reprocessed
Weather doesn't support any imaging, so I reprocessed an older image, the Elephant's Trunk nebula.
Elephant's Trunk
A detail in IC 1396 emission nebula
Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements.
Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Buy a photographic print from HERE
The elephant's Trunk nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust in the star cluster IC 1396.
This ionized gas region locates in the constellation Cepheus about 2400 light years away.
Formation is coursed by a stellar wind, radiation pressure, from a group of massive young stars.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A detail
At the time of imaging, the seeing was very good, HWFM ~2.5
A wide field image of the area
The Trunk formation at bottom middle
More info about this image HERE.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A Gargoyle of the sky
A Gargoyle?.. See HERE
Technical details
All technical details are with an original image HERE
Sunday, December 9, 2012
The Cave Nebula
I shot this target 29.11. but I'm publishing it now since this one was very hard to process due to its dimness.
Cave Nebula, Sharpless 155 (Sh2-155)
In constellation Cepheus
Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen.
The Cave Nebula, Sh2-155 or Caldwell 9, is a dim and very diffuse bright nebula within a larger nebula complex containing emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity. It is located in the constellation Cepheus. The reflection, wide band, component can't be seen in my image, since this is a narrowband one.
Distance is about 2400 light years.
Distance is about 2400 light years.
Orientation in a wide filed image
Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle. More info about this image HERE.
An apparent size of the full Moon is marked at the lower right corner for a scale.
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
15x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 5h
Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field image seen above.
Ps.
A single 20 min. H-alpha frame
Calibrated with Bias corrected flat and Dark masters in CCDStack
1200 seconds of H-aplha light with 12" SCT @ f5 and QHY9 astrocamera.
Image is scaled down 50% from original.
Friday, December 7, 2012
A quick one, Sh2-106
This is a kind of snapshot, only one hour of H-alpha filtered light. Sh2-106 is a compact star forming emission nebula in constellation Cygnus. I was planning to shot several hours of lights fro this onae in all three bands for a RGB-colors. How ever, this is a very small nebula and it needs a good seeing to work with. Seeing has been so poor up here, that I haven't been able to finalize this work. Maybe it'll work at next Autumn season....
Sharpless 106
In Cygnus, RA: 20h 30m 51.0s Dec: +37° 24' 35 Mag: 14.5, Distance: ~2000 ly
A colorized H-alpha emission image.
Sharpless 106 (Sh2-106) is a star forming region surrounded by dust and gasses in Cygnus. The central star is approximately 15 times the mass of our Sun and about 100,000 years old. Hourglass shape is coursed by a strong solar winds and material ejected from the star. The star is close to the bottom opening of the nebula in this image which glows the brightest. There are many sub-stellar objects forming within the nebula and may result in a cluster of 50 to 150 stars someday in future.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels and curves 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
3 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 1h
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