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Monday, September 5, 2011

Bubble Nebula reprocessed, again




Since my processing technique gets better and weather doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.


Sharpless 162, NGC 7635, the "Bubble Nebula"
Ra 23h 20m 48s Dec +61° 12′ 06″

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope) from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen & B=Oxygen.Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III & B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.





A closeup






A closer closeup of the bubble feature
Not a bad resolution for an olde Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope...


I made this animation originally to be sure, that I don't have any artifacts from my experimental processing workflow.




This is one of the most interesting looking structures in a sky.
NGC 7635 aka "Bubble Nebula, Sh2-162 or Caldwell11, is a Hydrogen emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. It locates near the open cluster M 52 at distance of about 11.000 light years from the Earth.
The bubble structure is created by a strong stellar wind, a radiation pressure, from massive hot magnitude 8,7 central star, SAO 20575, it can be seen in an image inside of the bubble, off centered at Right.

Bubble is an expanding shock front inside a giant molecular cloud and it has a diameter more than Six light years. The spherical formation is expanding at speed of 6500.000 km/h, due the huge scale and distance we can't see the movement easily. In a century, the bubble in this image will be only about one pixel wider, than now! ( ~1 arc second)
Strong UV-radiation from a central star ionized elements in a gas and makes them glow at typical wavelength to each element. (Hydrogen glows Red light as Sulfur, Oxygen emits Green/Blue light at visible wavelengths) 

If you are interested about color schemes used in my images, I wrote a small study about them, please, have a look here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2009/11/colors-in-astro-images.html





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. Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.This composition is very close to a visual spectrum. 


A closeup






Previous version of the Bubble Nebula can be seen here:


Please, let me know, if this one looks better!


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.
Imaged in three nights between 27.09 - 04-09 2009, seeing varys between 4-2,5 FWHM  
Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f4.65 Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 11Hz
Exposures:
H-alpha 21x1200s Binned 1x1 = 7h
S-II 10x600s Binned 3x3
O-III 5x600s Binned 3x3


A study of the apparent scale in a sky


NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a scale.

3D-study of the Bubble Nebula:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2009/10/bubble-nbula-as-stereogram.html




Wide field images of the Bubble Nebula area

Sharpless 157, Sh2-157, in a middle, Bubble Nebula can be seen at about ten a clock position.


A panoramic, two panel mosaic, from the Bubble to the Wizard Nebula at Right.







Friday, September 2, 2011

IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula", reprocessed





Since my processing technique gets better and the time of year doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.



IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula"

Ra 02h 51m 36.24s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"


Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.

This image is taken with a Tokina AT-X 300mm F2.8 camera lens.
Soul Nebula (Sh2-199, LBN667) is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia at distance of about 7500 light years.
This complex is the eastern neighbor of IC1805 (Heart Nebula) and the two are often mentioned together as the "Heart and Soul".

Here is a "scale study" about the apparent scale of the IC1848 in a sky:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/06/ic1848-soul-nebula-apparent-scale-in.html






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.



Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack. 
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 20 iteration, added at 50% weight.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Equipments:
Tokina AT-a 300mm f2.8 @ f2.8
Platform and guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guider, Lodestar
Image Scale, 3,79 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures:
Baader H-alpha 7nm 15x1200s, binned 1x1
Other channels are from an older image



Older images from the same target


Image shows both, Soul and Heart, nebulae
Colors for a new image are taken from this older one.

Soul Nebula closeup 1


Soul Nebula closeup 2



Tuesday, August 30, 2011

NGC 2070, the "Tarantula Nebula", reprocessed




Since my processing technique gets better and the time of year doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.


The Tarantula Nebula, in Dorado

Ra 05h 38m 38s Dec -69° 05′ 07″


NGC 2070 in HST-palette 
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.


I redid the processing and composition for this southern target. Original version, with wider field, can be seen here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ngc-2070-tarantula-nebula.html

Tarantula nebula, NGC 2070, also known as 30 Doradus, is an ionized Hydrogen region in the Large Magellanic cloud, visible in southern hemisphere. Distance from Earth is about 160.000 light years,
it's the most active and largest starburst region known in local group of galaxies.
Image is taken with a Northern Galactic groups remote telescope in Australia.


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.

The telescope and technical information:

16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
H-alpha 5x1200s, Dark and artificial Flat calibrated.
2 x O-III 1200s and 5 x 900s Dark and artificial Flat calibrated.
2 x S-II 1200s, Dark and artificial Flat calibrated.
Raw data is shared with "Team Finland"


Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations added 50% to non convoluted data
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Astro Anarchy gets published





The Daily Mail has used my image of NGC281, the "Pac-Man Nebula" in its article

The very same image was selected as an APOD, (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by the NASA at August 25.

Original blog post, with more images and technical details, can be seen here: