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Tuesday, September 17, 2013
A collection of images from a large mosaic of Cygnus
I haven't been able to open up this season yet, since some of my equipment are not yet back from the factory service. (Should be here any day now!) To keep up my processing skills, I have reprocessed my older material.
A collection of sub-images from the mosaic above
Please, pay attention to a resolution of images bellow. I have used a new processing technique of mine to keep images sharp during the processing routine.
No artificial sharpening methods are used!
Monday, February 8, 2021
Cygnus mosaic in visual colors
I have published this image in mapped colors at December 2020, it can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html
I have started this imaging project back at 2010. My aim was to make a high resolution mosaic covering the constellation Cygnus. Work like that takes time and patience, especially since I have worked so, that many of the individual sub mosaics or frames have been published as an individual artworks. Here is a poster format presentation about all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside wide field panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html
As a result I have now a huge 37 panel (And 58 long focal length sub-panel) mosaic panorama covering 28 x 18 degrees of sky. I have collected photons way over 400 hours during past ten years for this photo. The full size mosaic image has a size of about 25.000 x 15.000 pixels.
A photo of five million stars*
Great Mosaic of Cygnus (2010-2020)
28x18 degrees, 97 panels and over 400 hours of exposure time
The full size photo is worth to see! (2700 x 1700 pixels)An apparent size of the Moon is marked as a scale at bottom left of the picture frame.
This is a large area of sky! (28 x 18 degrees) Image is in visual colours, from the emission of ionized elements in the area.
* I actually counted the stars and in this field of view there are little over five million individual stars!
Three supernova remnants, two Wolf Rayet stars and a black hole
Please, click the image for full resolution
Beside three supernova remnants there are two Wolf Rayet stars with outer shell formations. NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula at center of the image and the WR 134, it can be seen as a blue arch just right from the Crescent Nebula, near the Tulip nebula.
Next to the Tulip Nebula lays a Black hole Cygnus X-1, it's marked in small closeup image of the Tulip Neula at center right in orientation image above.
Constellation Cygnus is an endless source of celestial wonders, both scientifically and aesthetically. For me, as an visual artist, this are of night sky is very inspiring There are endless amount of amazing shapes and structures, I can spend rest of my life just shooting images from this treasury.
Click for a large image
Here is a poster format presentation and a list all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside the actual panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html
Couple of close ups to show the resolution
Click for a large image
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Milky Way, 12 years, 1250 hours of exposures and 125 x 22 degrees of sky THIS IS A PERMANENT POST, NEW POSTS ARE AFTER THIS POST
It took nearly twelve years to collect enough data for this high resolution gigapixel class mosaic image of the Milky Way. Total exposure time used is around 1250 hours between 2009 and 2021.
" I can hear music in this composition, from the high sounds of sparcs and bubbles at left all the way to a deep and massive sounds at right."
The final photo is about 100 000 pixels wide, it has 234 individual mosaic panels stitched together and 1,7 gigapixels. (Click for a large image) All the frames used are marked in this image. Since many of sub-images and mosaics are independent artworks it leads to a very complex mosaic structure.
NEW, A HD-video from Germany shows my photo in full glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Z60eZ4yqM
(Video in Germany but images are the international language)
Close ups form the parts of the Grande Mosaic
The California Nebula, NGC 1499, can be seen at bottom left of the large mosaic image.
There are about 20 million individual stars visible in the whole mosaic image.
Click for a large image
Image spans 125 x 22 degrees of the Milky About 20 million individual stars are visible in my photo!
My processing workflow is very constant so very little tweaking was needed between the mosaic frames. Total exposure time is over 1250 hours. Some of the frames has more exposure time, than others. There are some extremely dim objects clearly visible in this composition, like a extremely dim supernova remnant W63, the Cygnus Shell. It lays about six degrees up from North America nebula and it can be seen as a pale blue ring. I spent about 100 hours for this SNR alone. An other large and faint supernova remnant in Cygnus can be seen at near right edge of the image. G65.5+5.7 is as large as more famous Veil nebula. There are over 60 exposure hours for this SNR alone. (Veil SNR is just outside of the mosaic area for compositional reasons but can be seen in "Detail" image above.)
I took my current toolset as a base tool since it has a relatively high resolution combined to a very large field of view. Also it collects photons very quickly since it's undersampled and I can have very dim background nebulosity visible in very short time (many times 30 min frame is enough)
I do all my mosaic work under the PhotoShop, Matching the separate panels by using stars as an indicator is kind of straight forward work. My processing has become so constant, that very little tweaking is needed between separate frames, just some minor levels, curves and color balance.
I have used lots of longer focal length sub-frames in my mosaic to boost details. (See the mosaic map at top of the page) To match them with shorter focal length shots I developed a new method.
Firstly I upscale the short focal length frames about 25% to have more room for high resolution images.Then I match the high res photo to a mosaic by using the stars as an indicator. After that I remove all the tiny stars from the high res image. Next I separate stars from low res photo and merge the starless high res data to a starless low res frame. And finally I place the removed low res stars back at top of everything with zero data lost. Usually there are some optical distortions and it's seen especially in a star field. Now all my stars are coming from a same optical setup and I don't have any problems with distortions. (I'm using the same star removal technique as in my Tone Mapping Workflow)
Click for a large image
Click for a large image,
IC 405 6 410 area
The blog post with technical details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-tulip-nebula-in-cygnus-sh2-101.html
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Photo number 8, The Chinese Dragon
Duration ~one minute
When you spent a decade working with a one photo to get it ready, it's like a long marriage. The passionate love is slowly turning to a deeper connection and at the end you'll grow together and can't live without the others company. As in marriage, during the years I have had friction in the relationship, even hate. But after desperate times the love always wins.
I'm a perfectionist, when dealing with my photography. This feature is essential for a great results but it also can cause problems in relationship. There have been times when I almost get a divorce and started looking for another, easier target since I couldn't get out all of the extreme dim and difficult details I wanted to see and show. I didn't even know, if they are there since there wasn't any references to compare. I didn't give up and finally after long nights and hundreds of exposure hours I get what I was after. Now we can grow old together and I know for sure, I will always find something new and existing from my love one, the Chinese Dragon..
I have started this imaging project back at 2010. My aim was to make a high resolution mosaic covering the whole constellation Cygnus. Work like that takes time and patience, especially since I have worked so, that many of the individual sub mosaics or frames can be published as an individual artworks. Here is a poster format presentation about all of the longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside longer focal length panels.
As a result I have now a huge 95 panel mosaic panorama covering 28 x 18 degrees of sky. I have collected photons way over 600 hours during past ten years for this photo. The full size mosaic image has a size of about 25.000 x 15.000 pixels.
Just outside of the field of view lays the famous Veil Nebula SNR at bottom middle.
Beside two supernova remnants there are two Wolf Rayet stars with outer shell formations. NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula at center of the image and the WR 134, it can be seen as a blue arch just right from the Crescent Nebula, near the Tulip nebula.
Next to the Tulip Nebula lays a Black hole Cygnus X-1.
Constellation Cygnus is an endless source of celestial wonders, both scientifically and aesthetically. For me, as an visual artist, this area of night sky is very inspiring There are endless amount of amazing shapes and structures, I can spend rest of my life just shooting images from this treasury.
Original resolution in pixels, 25.000 x 15.000
The NASA astronomer wrote about this image:
I have used several optical configurations for this mosaic image during the years. Up to 2014 I was using an old Meade LX200 GPS 12" scope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and baader narrowband filter set.
After 2014 I have had 10-micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and the Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set.
I have shot many details with a longer focal length, before 2014 by using Meade 12" scope with reducer and after 2014 Celestron EDGE 11" and reducer. Quider camera has been Lodestar and Lodestar II.
A version of this photo was selected as an Astronomical Picture Of the Day by NASA
Here is a poster format presentation and a list all of longer focal length images used for this mosaic beside the actual panels, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2018/11/treasures-of-swan.html
Click for a large image
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Grande mosaic of Cygnus in visual colors, 18-panels, 150 hours and 22 x 14 degrees of sky
Yesterday I published a mapped color version of this nebula complex, here is the version in visual spectrum.
I have originally published this image back at December 9, 2011 After that I have shot many details out of this are of sky with much longer focal length instrument. Mainly with Celestron Edge 11" reflecting telescope. I have now updated this photo with a new image material and I thought, that it's a good time to republish this updated image again.
The Great mosaic image of constellation Cygnus has 18 individual panels stitched together seamlessly. Each panel has shot three times for a color image. First I shot the light from an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha), then light from an ionized sulfur (S-II) and last the light from an ionized oxygen (O-III). The final image has a resolution of 15.000 x 10.000 pixels. I shot all frames with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics at full open, QHY9 astrocam and Baader narrowband filter set.
There are no noise reduction, star reduction or sharpening used for this mosaic. It's very well in focus due to temp compensating focuser I made for this lens. (At f1.8 the critical focus zone is about 7 metric microns.)
Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements, R=Hydrogen + Sulphur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + 10% Hydrogen to compensate the missing H-beta emission.
Monday, August 19, 2013
A two frame mosaic image, from Butterfly to the Crescent Nebula
Click the image to see it in large scale!
Note. A large image 2200x1400 pixels and ~5MB.
18-panel mosaic of the constellation Cygnus, image is in mapped colors. The area of interest. in top most photo. can be seen at middle of this large mosaic.
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Technical details can be seen behind the link bellow.
Sunday, December 27, 2020
From Cassiopeia to Cepheus, eight years and 300 hours of exposures
I started this imaging project back at 2012. During the years I have shot more frames for this active region of the sky. Now there are 26 panels and 22 high resolution sub-panels stitched together. Photo covers about 35 x 17 degrees of sky and the physical resolution is over 25.000 x 12.000 pixels. There are about 4,5 million individual stars visible in this image.
This is my second large mosaic image finalized in this month, a very large mosaic image of Cygnus can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html
A horizontal version
Click for a large image, it's really worth it! (1500 x 3000 pixels)
Orientation and size
Click for a large image
Info about the Cygnus mosaic can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/12/cygnus-project-grande-finale-for-now.html
You should click the images to see them in full glory, it's worth the effort!
Supernova remnant CTB1
Frames