Thursday, November 15, 2018
Pelican Nebula panorama
My source of endless visual treasures is the constellation Cygnus. Supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, emission nebulae and complex dark nebula networks among the other beautiful objects and cosmic phenomena. I went through my photographic material from constellation Cygnus, I have shot this area of sky for many years and some of my photos are overlapping. I was able to make some panoramic mosaics out of this overlapping material.
Pelican and North America Nebula panorama
Please, click for a high resolution photo, 1052 x 2258 pixels!
There are material from four individual images combined to this panoramic view. All photos are shot with a Celestron EDGE 11" reflecting telescope, Apogee Alta U16,a cooled astrocam and the Astrodon narrowband filter set. Photos are shot between the years 2015 and 2017, total exposure time is around 30h.
Wilder View photo of the NA and Pelican nebula
Please, click for a large image
Monday, November 5, 2018
Sharpless 157 in Cassiopeia
I originally shot data for this Sharpless catalog object as Spring season 2018. I noticed that, I haven't publish a visual spectrum image out of it yet. So here we go, Sh2-157 in visual spectrum from narrowband channels.The mixture I'm using gives a very realistic color scheme.
Red color is mixed by emission of an ionized hydrogen and Sulfur, 80% of H-alpha and 20% of S-II.
Green color is from the emission of an ionized oxygen, 100% of O-III
Blue color is mixed from the emission of an ionized oxygen and hydrogen, 85% of O-III and 15% of H-alpha. (The emission of an ionized hydrogen is added to compensate other wise missing H-beta emission.)
A mapped color version can be seen here:Please, click for a large image
The photo width is about one degree of sky. (The full Moon covers about 0,5 degrees of the sky.)
An experimental starless version
Please, click for a large image
A close up
Please, click for a large image
INFO
Sharpless 157
The night sky between the constellations Cassiopeia and Cepheus is rich with nebulae and star clusters. The nebulae visible in this image include Sharpless 157 and Lynd’s Bright Nebula 537. The star clusters include Markarian 50 and NGC 7510. The planetary Nebula PLN 110-0.1 (WeSb) can be seen at lower left.
Sharpless 157 is sometimes referred to as the Lobster Claw Nebula for obvious reasons. The bright spot at upper left quarter of this photo is Lynd’s Bright Nebula (LBN) 537. Also designated at Sh 2 – 157a, it is a ring nebula around the Wolf-Rayet star WR 157.
At the lower right quarter of the image lays open star cluster NGC 7510.
With labels
Please, click for a large image
An older wide field photo of the area
Please, click for a large image
The area of a new photo is marked as a white rectangle. The Bubble nebula can be seen as a bluish pearl, just half a degree North West from the Sharpless 157.
This photo is shot at 2007 with a QHY 8, a cooled astro camera and the Baader narrowband filter set, H-a, S-II and O-III. Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens @ f2.8
Technical details
Processing work flow
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.
Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f10 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AOL
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Exposure times
H-alpha, 24 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 8 h
O-III, 10 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 3 h 20 min.
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 3 h
Total 14 h 20 min
A single uncropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. exposures as they come out from the camera.
H-alpha
H-alpha
S-II
O-III
LBN 239 and 243 in visual spectrum
Two of my latest photos are overlapping, so I was able to stitch them together to this two panel mosaic image. This time in visual colors combined from narrowband channels, H-alpha, S-II and O-III. Mapped color version can be seen in my previous post HERE
LBN 239 and 243 in Constellation Cygnus
Please, click for a large image
Image info and the technical data
Exposure times, equipments, filters and processing information for the both frames in this two panel mosaic image can be found behind the links.
Upper part of the photo above:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/this-new-photos-shows-lbn-251-and.html
Bottom half:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/lbn-243.html
Sunday, November 4, 2018
LBN 239 and 243
Two of my latest photos are overlapping, so I was able to stitch them together to this two panel mosaic image.
LBN 239 and 243 in Constellation Cygnus
Please, click for a large image
Bow Tie of LBN 251, LBN 239 and the IC 1311
Click for a large photo
More info and technical detais, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/this-new-photos-shows-lbn-251-and.html
LBN 243
Click for a large image
More info and technical detais, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/lbn-243.html
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Just for a fun
Natural phenomenons has a tendency to have the same patterns.
Brain vessels VS Supernova remnant
Please, click for a large image
The MRA photo of brain vessels is form here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07182-7
My photo of Simeis 147 supernova remnant can be seen here:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-supernova-remnant-simeis-147.html
LBN 243
I have been using my large 18-panels mosaic image of the Cygnus Nebula Complex as a map to a some rarely imaged dimmer nebulae in that area. The large mosaic photo was taken with a Canon EF 200mm@f1.8 camera lens. I have shot many interesting areas from that photo with much longer focal length instruments.
Last few years I have been using an excellent telescope for that task, Celestron Edge 11" reflecting telescope with 0.7 focal reducer. BTW, this is one of the very best focal reducers I have ever been using! Its build like a tank and optical quality is next to nothing. The reducer cost about as much as an good quality refracting telescope but it's worth of every penny. With this reducer my Apogee Alta U16 camera has a spatial resolution of about one arcsecond per pixel. That image scale is pretty much optimal for my imaging purposes.
This time I picked up an interesting looking object from Cygnus Nebula Complex, the emission nebula LBN 243. It's a kind of dim target and I was able to dig out some extreme dim emission of ionized oxygen too (O-III) I haven't seen any pictures focusing to this target so far.
Click for a large image
An experimental starless version
Click for a large image
It's much easier to see the shapes and details in actual nebula, when the stars are removed.
Orientation in large context
Click for a large image
Technical details
Processing workflow
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.
Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f10 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope
Mount
10-micron 1000
Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AOL
Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III
Exposure times
H-alpha, 13 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 4 h
O-III, 6 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 2 h.
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 1 h
APOD by NASA, Astro Anarchy gets published
Astronomy Picture of the Day
My shot of the Cygnus Shell, supernova remnant W63, was selected today as an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by NASA. You can see the NASA page here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181102.html
Cygnus Shell, W63
Please, click for a large photo it's worth it!
Image is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. This mosaic image of twelve individual panels covers about four degrees of sky vertically.
Original blogpost with the technical details can be found from here:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-very-rare-photo-cygnus-shell.html
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