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Monday, December 13, 2010

NGC 1499, the "California Nebula", a closeup





NGC 1499, the "California Nebula" locates in constellation Perseus. Distance is about 1000 light years.
This is a closeup image, the actual nebula covers about 2,5 degrees of sky.
RA 04h 03m 18.00s Dec +36° 25′ 18.0"
The image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

I have shot this image as a wide field version before. For this closeup I shot 27x1200s, binned down 2x2, for H-alpha channel, colors are from my older wide field image. NGC 1499 has a very low surface brightness, hence a longish integration time is needed.



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:


Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack. 
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations, 50% mix..
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.


Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 4,5Hz
Image Scale, 0,75 arcseconds/pixel
Baader H-alpha 7nm 27x1200s, binned 2x2

Older wide field version of IC 405 from 2008 is used for colors.


Original Blog post and details:


This image was published at July 2009 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine's Gallery, in page 78, 

there is a full page image of NGC 1499, the "California Nebula" by me.
Total exposure time is 18 hours.


Sunday, December 12, 2010

IC 405, project finalized






IC 405, Sh2-229 or Caldwell 31 also known as the "Flaming Star Nebula".
RA 05h 16.2m dec +34° 28′ 
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.



Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.


IC 405 locates in constellation  Auriga and it's an emission/reflection nebula. Refelction component can't be seen in my image, since I'm shooting only narrowband data and reflection part is broadband target.
Distance from Oulu, Finland, is about 1500 light years. Nebula is about 5 light years across.
Total exposure time is about 12h

A closeup




Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack. 
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations, 50% mix..
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.


Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 4,5Hz
Image Scale, 0,75 arcseconds/pixel
Baader H-alpha 7nm 17x1200s, binned 2x2
Baader O-III 8,5 nm 9x1200s, binned 2x2 and 9x1200s, binned 3x3

S-II channel is borrowed from an older (2008) wide field image, image can be seen here:

Area of interest marked as a gray rectangle. 
Older wide field image from 2008.  



IC 405 as a Stereo pair 3D, natural colors







Parallel vision 3D



Cross vision 3D


Other 3D-formats:

Original 2D-image with the technical details:


NOTE! This 3D-study is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression. Viewing instructions at Right hand side menu.

IC 405 closeup as an animated 3D






Animations are made by creating artificial parallax to an image. Then two images are animated together by using conversion web service, Start3D. There can be some artifacts in images, due the experimental nature of this work! The volumetric models are based on some known facts and an artistic impression.

Please, let the images load for few seconds to see them animated!



Other 3D-formats:

Original 2D-image with the technical details:


NOTE! This 3D-study is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression. Viewing instructions at Right hand side menu.