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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

IC 1396 in Color

H-alpha channel is form 20.03.2008.
Last night I got some color for IC 1396, here is the result.
Only 3 x 900 s. (45min)
Smoke from local paper mill ruined over half of the exposures.
Thanks a lot.
IMAGING DETAILS
Optics:
Canon FD 200mm f2.8 lens with full aperature
Camera:
QHY8
Platform and guiding:
LX200 GPS 12" with QHY5 guider and PHD-guiding
Exposures:
6 x 1800s H-alpha +3 x 900s RGB + Flats and Bias frames, no darks
Filter:
Baader 7nm H-alp + IDAS LP RGB
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Here is a Hydrogen-alpha channel

Friday, March 21, 2008

IC 443 & NGC 2175

This image is from same night, than IC 1396.
The image scale of the lens is not perfect for this target, more
resolution is needed here.
What a waste of space, one can say...
The IC 443 is allso called to a "JellyFish Nebula"
for obvious reasons.
Lens:
Canon FD 200mm f2.8 @ f2.8
Platform:
LX00 GPS 12"
Guiding:
QHY5 + PHD-guiding
Camera:
QHY8
Filter:
Baader 7nm H-alpha
Exposures:
4 x 1800s = 2h

Focusing & imaging system for the camera lens

I promised to post images of the focusing system I build for the camera lens,
so here it goes.

Focusing system from top.

image about whole imaging system

The Business end of the lens

Accurate focusing is needed doe the very fast lens. At f2.8 the sharp focus zone is about 20/1000 mm! Focusing by hand is a pure Lottery. I have TCF-s focuser and its temperature compensated, so thereis no need to refocus every time when temperature drops.

The focusing system has been build from the scrap metal and some parts found from

the drawer.

Its very easy to move the focuser back and forth between main scope

and the lens.

There is a right size can lid bolted down to a L-shape body.

Focuser is then atattched to the lid.

In a focuser, there is a brass tube. This tube goes back and forth when focuser moves.

Its then rotate the focuser ring of the camera lens. There is peace of fine sandpaper glued

to the tube to prevent slipery, tube has allso a spring load for the same purpose.

I have used TCF-s focuser but it can be any focuser, even manual one!

It will make focusing easier and less random.

The whole project took about three hours of time and cost 50c (I had to buy

some bolts)

The whole assembly is then attached to the dowetail rail at top of the LX200 scope.

This is a second version.

The firs version was made by blywood, but I made it again with metal doe flexsure problems.

Shematic

Thursday, March 20, 2008

IC 1396 & Dark nebulas in Hydrogen Alpha light

After playing with 3D stuff I returned back to real astro imaging. Last night was allmost full Moon and doe that I selected the target from opposite side of the sky. IC 1396 was about 30-36 degrees above horizont during the capturing. IC 1396 is a large emission nebula. Image scale fits well with field of view of Canon FD 200mm f2.8 lens. There is lots of faint nebulosity around the field. Dark nebulas, visible in image, are dark hydrogen clouds and they are blocking light from background stars. One part of the large nebula is a famous "Elephant's Trunk Nebula", seen in lower part of the image.
IMAGING DETAILS Optics: Canon FD 200mm f2.8 lens with full aperature Camera: QHY8 Platform and guiding: LX200 GPS 12" with QHY5 guider and PHD-guiding Exposures: 6 x 1800s = 3 hours + Flats and Bias frames, no darks Filter: Baader 7nm H-alpha

Elephant's Trunk detail from 10.12.2007

Older image of the "Elephant's Trunk", with longer FL

This formation can be seen in upper image. (lower part of the picture).

LX200 GPS 12" f6.3 + SXV-AO (Active Optics system) H-a 4h Elephants trunk nebula in IC 1396

Parallel Vision Stereo Image Cross Vision Stereo Image

Chilifornia Nebula in 3D

Parallel Vision
Cross Vision
Looks like two, red hot, chili peppers to me.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

3D Bubble Nebula

Parallel Vision
Cross vision
The Bubble nebula was a very firs target I shooted with the SXV-AO, active optics unit.
There is info about original image in the archives.
This time I added some three dimensional effect to it. (don this ealier, but with differen
tecnique) The Bubble is odd looking object. It has diameter about six miljon light years!
It's really a hollow space inside Red hydrogen, emptyed by a massive star
by pressure of a solar wind.
There is some viewing instructions in ealier posts.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

M81, 3D transformation

This is example image of three dimensional transformation.
Original 2D image of M81 is now turned to freely rotatable object.
Pretty far from actual astro photography, umh...
Interesting tough.

M81, Odd Stereo Pair

Parallel vision
Cross Vision
As you can see, this stereo image looks litlebit odd, since you can not see this galaxy from this
angle anywhere from Earth! Explanation in previous post.
Note. All the stars were suppressed during the project and I desided to leave it in that way, I have those stars in separate layer tough.

M81 experiment

This image pair is not a stereo one.
On the Left image, M81 galaxy is as we see it from our home planet.
On the Right image, M81 is seen from directly above!
I was doing stereo pair from Glaxy M81 and I needed to correct the galaxy to "flat" (perspective correction) The shape of the galaxy is more visible by that way, I think. Anyhow funny looking transform. I can now make a grayscale hight map out of this corrected image. When corrected bitmap is projected back to the 3D surface, I have a model of galaxy. Now it's possible to freely rotate the object and selext any vantage point to observe.