Saturday, February 18, 2012
Astro Anarchy gets published
SPACE PICTURE OF THE WEEK
National Geographic published my picture of Ced 214, the "Cosmic Curiosity", as one of the Space pictures of the Week, yesterday 17.02.
Here is the link to a National Georaphic news:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/02/pictures/120217-best-space-pictures-183-sun-saturn-moons-science/#/space183-question-mark-nebula_48869_600x450.jpg 
Original blog post for this image, with technical details, can be seen here:
Friday, February 17, 2012
The California Nebula, NGC 1499, with some new data
I shot about 5h new H-a data for the NGC 1499 in this Autumn, 2011, with Canon EF 200mm f1.8, full open, and a QHY9 cooled astronomical camera. All the exposures, I have taken for this object bettween years 2008-2011, are now used. Total exposure time is over 26h together for all three channels, Ionized Sulfur, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Two camera lenses was used to capture the data, a Tokina AT 300mm f2.8 and a Canon EF 200mm f1.8, both was used at full aperture. An extra detail, at bright central area, is shot with a longer focal length instrument, Meade LX200 GPS 12" at f5. Exposure time for central detail was about 10h, at top of the total 26h exposure time.
NGC 1499, in Perseus
Ra 04h 03m 18s Dec +36° 25′ 18″
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 California Nebula is an emission area located in constellation Perseus. It appears to resemble outlines of State of California on long exposure photographs, like this one. It has a very low surface brightness and it's very difficult to observe visually. Distance from my home town Oulu, Finland, is about 1000 light years.
this image spans about five degrees. The Wikipedia article states, that the angular size is about 2,5 degrees (Five full Moons side by side) but as can be seen in this image, the actual size, with a dim outer parts, is much large.
this image spans about five degrees. The Wikipedia article states, that the angular size is about 2,5 degrees (Five full Moons side by side) but as can be seen in this image, the actual size, with a dim outer parts, is much large.
HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope) from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
A study about the apparent scale in a sky
This is a large object, note, the size of the Moon is marked, as a scale, in all of the images above.
3D-studies
Experimental 3D-studies of NGC1499 can be found in my portfolio, in different formats.
Please, have a look here:
A panorama mosaic, from IC 1396 to Sh2-129, finalized
A two frame mosaic, from IC 1396 to the Sh2-129
In constellation Cepheus
Note. The dark vertical patch, at middle of the image, is not a seam but a dark nebula. Seam between image halves is located right from the dark nebula and can not be seen.
EDIT.
Image is updated 21.02., I found more material for outer parts. Now the composition is more "spacey".
EDIT.
Image is updated 21.02., I found more material for outer parts. Now the composition is more "spacey".
Last Autumn I shot six hours for new H-alpha light for both objects, IC 1396 & Sharpless 129.
I combined this new data, shot for the mosaic, to all my older material from years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The final composition has a total exposure time of about 40h for all channels.
Data is shot with various optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 and LX200 GPS 12" f5. QHY9 and QHY8 cameras are used with a Baader narrowband filter set, Ha, O-III and S-II.
Image spans about ten degrees horizontally. (Twenty full Moons side by side)
I was about to made more dynamic composition out of this. The weather up here didn't support the shooting of the required four mosaic frames. Now the composition is more "informative", than beautiful...
I was about to made more dynamic composition out of this. The weather up here didn't support the shooting of the required four mosaic frames. Now the composition is more "informative", than beautiful...
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.
Ps.
A study about the scale in a sky
Note. Size of the full Moon is marked as a scale.
(Moon has an apparent diameter of 30', that's 0,5 degrees.)
Sunday, February 12, 2012
AstroAnarchy gets published
![[nasa-large.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnPTKmnidt6gHuVkChO_MPYTqp2lSu-Tr0If3ey1qfJxF9BJpDhG8wIWnxo86hb3vT5OYKiznVUminjBaRRat99o70A1ODvDjHEDHpKGWYCsnjn-WFYunaGVPsfXiizriH0upX9hbpNWs/s1600/nasa-large.jpg)
At Fridays APOD, Feb. 10. 2012, NASA writers used my experimental 3D-stereo pair of NGC 6752 as a reference.
Link to this APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120210.html
My stereo pair from the same object is as a text link , "stars in a sphere", in an APOD above.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Ced 214 as a 3D stereo pair
Ones again, I have done my 3D-experiments with astronomical images.
Viewing instructions can be seen here:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.com/search/label/Stereo%20image%20viewing%20instructions
Other 3D-formats:
Original 2D:
NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.
CED 214 as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D
3D-NOTE!
You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see images as 3D.If you have a Red and Blue filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.
Other 3D-formats:
Original 2D:
NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Siemis 147, new data added
I did reprocess this SNR, since I have now new data to add,
Emission of an Oxygen III 5h, and emission of Hydrogen II 5h
Total exposure time is now 26h. with fast, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, camera optics.
Simeis 147, Sh2-240
In constellation Taurus
Note. New data for O-III has added much more blue color.
Older version can be seen in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/simeis-147-supernova-remnant.html
Older version can be seen in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/simeis-147-supernova-remnant.html
I shot H-alpha filtered lights for this image at many nights, after I shot lights for my Cygnus mosaic project.
After a midnight, Cygnus and its targets are too low in the horizon so I used rest of the night for this supernova remnant. Total exposure time for H-alpha is now ~18h +5h of an additional O-III light.
Simeis 147 (sharpless 240), is a very faint and very large supernova remnant in constellation Taurus at distance of ~3000 light years. It's constantly expanding at speed of 1000 km/second but due the size of it, we can't see any movement in it. This SN spans over 160 light years and the apparent scale in the sky is about three degrees (Moon has an apparent size of 30" = 0,5 degrees). Explosion took place approximately 30.000 years ago and left behind a pulsar (Neutron star). The pulsar has recently identified.
How long it'll takes to this supernova remnant to expand 1% large when the diameter is 160 light years and it expands at speed of 1000km/second.
How long it'll takes to this supernova remnant to expand 1% large when the diameter is 160 light years and it expands at speed of 1000km/second.
Answer is ~480 years.
(1% of diameter 160/100= 16, as kilometers ~151.372.800.000.00, = Y, km,
1000km/second is ~315.360.000.00, = Z, kilometers/year.
So, X x Z = Y and X=Z/Y, X = 480 with given values)
(1% of diameter 160/100= 16, as kilometers ~151.372.800.000.00, = Y, km,
1000km/second is ~315.360.000.00, = Z, kilometers/year.
So, X x Z = Y and X=Z/Y, X = 480 with given values)
This is a difficult target to image and image above is my second try to capture it. An older version can be seen here. This older image was my second APOD from NASA.
EDIT.
This image get selected as a Space Picture of the Week by the National Geographic magazine.
You can see the story HERE
Closeups
Image in visual spectrum
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
This palette is very close to a visual spectrum.
An animated image, with and without stars
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 33 % weight
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
H-alpha 34x900s, Binned 1x1 = 8,5h
H-alpha 24x1800s, Binned 1x1 = 12h
O-III 60 x 300s, Binned 3x3 = 5h
S-II 6 x 600, Binned 3x3 = 1h
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha alone is ~20,5h
Total exposure time is 26,5h
Part of the O-III and S-II channel are from an older image, it can be seen here
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sharpless 145, a dim and large nebula in Cepheus
Sh2-145, a large Nebula in constellation Cepheus
RA 22h 28m 44s DE +64 08' 51"
At night of 03.Feb, I was looking some targets in Cepheus. This area took my attention and I gave it whole night. I haven't been able to find any name for it from my sources. I's large, image spans 5,5 degrees horizontally, and dim. I shot it, with Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and QHY9 astronomical camera, five hours for H-a and two hours for O-III (binned down 3x3), camera was full open at f1.8.
The "bright", mag 6,29, star, at Left middle, is known as HR 8568, location is RA 22h 28m 44s DE +64 08' 51"
UPDATE
Thanks to "Never", in a Finnish astronomical forum "Avaruus", all the objects are now identified!
The bright patch at top is Sh2-150. Formation at the middle is Sh2-145 and a bright spot, at lower Right, is Sh2-140. Star cluster Pismis-Monreo 1 locates inside of Sh2-140.
Orientation map
H-alpha channel
A bicolor closeup
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 15x1200s
O-III, binned down 3x3 2h. total exposure time 7 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Sharpless 205, Sh2-205
Sh2-205
At border of Perseus and Camelopardalis
Image in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen.
Click for a large image!
A closeup
Image in visual spectrum
Narrow band channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and
B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 12x1800s + 15x1200s = 11h
O-III, binned down 3x3 1h. total exposure time12 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.
Monday, January 30, 2012
"What?" Project finalized
"?"
Image in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen.
North is Right. Click for a large image!
I shot data for ionized Sulfur and Oxygen last night and now I can compose a three channel RGB-image.
This cosmic question mark, in constellation Cepheus, contains following objects; At top, Cederblad 214(Ced 214) surrounded by NGC 7822, a dot like nebula at the bottom is known as Sharpless 170,(Sh2-170). Image spans over Five degrees vertically. Distance from my observatory, is ~2750 light years and it spans about 40 light years.
Total exposure time is about 9h with an ultra fast Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the QHY9 astronomical camera.
EDIT.
This image get selected as a Space Picture of the Week by the National Geographic magazine.
You can see the story HERE
Couple of closeups to show the resolution
Not bad for a 200mm camera lens
A natural color composition
From emission of ionized elements
Narrow band channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and
B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. North is Right.
Note!
Note!
A gray circle, at top Right, shows the apparent size of the full Moon.
(Moon has an angular size of 30', that's 0,5 degrees)
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 13x1200s + 10x900s = 7h
O-III 1h and S-II 1h, total 9 hours.
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
What?
"?"
A gray scale image of the Hydrogen alpha emission line. Click for a large image!
For a long time we have had clear weather, freezing too. I have spent couple of night shooting some new material. This cosmic question mark, in constellation Cepheus, contains following objects; At top, Cederblad 214 (Ced 214) surrounded by NGC 7822, a dot like nebula at the bottom is known as Sharpless 170,(Sh2-170). Image spans about three and half degrees vertically.
Total exposure time is about 7h with an ultra fast Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the QHY9 astronomical camera. I'll shoot other channels, emission of Oxygen and Sulfur, later, for a color image.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~4,5 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures, Baader 7nm H-a, 13x1200s + 10x900s
Calibration with Darks, Flats and Bias frames.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Large print out of the Cygnus nebulae
The size of the picture is 100 x 170cm (39,4 x 67 inch). It has been printed on acid free premium satin photo paper with a HP Z3200, 12 color, photo printer. I'm very happy with the quality of the print. Original file is so large and detailed, that the image is very sharp and all the stars are absolute pinpoints from edge to edge. I have calculated, that I can print out a sharp copy at size of about 3 x 5m, if I want!
I found the frame, seen in the picture, from a local Framing shop, it's an old, late 1800, gilded wooden frame. The print is then made to match to sizes of the frame. The result looks like an old Baroque painting.
Original image, in the picture above, can be found here with technical details:
Ps.
The frame and framing are bought from Taide ja Kehys Jokela.
The print job is done by the Artwall.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
A panorama from Simeis 147 to IC 405 & 410
Panoramic image from a constellation Taurus
A three panel mosaic in HST-palette from ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen & Blue=Oxygen. North is Right.
Image above spans about ten degrees, 600', sky horizontally, that's an area of 20 full Moons side by side.
At Left, a supernova remnant Simeis 147 (Sharpless 240). IC 405 and 410 can be seen at Right. I shot three relatively short exposures for the panorama, about an hour each, since I had shot both main objects earlier at Autumn 2011, with much longer integration time. (Technical details can be seen at end of this post.)
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha alone is about 20h.
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha alone is about 20h.
Panorama as a natural color composition
Narrowband channels combined to a visual spectrum, R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. Image is in real orientation in the sky, North is up.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves, color and mosaic combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~4,5 arcseconds/pixel
H-a for three panels 3h.
Exposures for the Simeis 147
H-alpha 34x900s, Binned 1x1
H-alpha 14x1800s, Binned 1x1
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha is ~13h
O-III & S-II channels are from an older image, it can be seen here
Exposures for IC 405 & 410
New exposures H-alpha 13x900s,
S-II and O-III information are from an older image
Total exposure time for Hydrogen, ~20h
Friday, January 13, 2012
Cygnus zoom in series
Weather, up here 65N, doesn't give any support so I made an other zoom in series.
This time I'm zooming from 23x14 to 0,5x0,7 degrees of sky at the are of NGC 7000 in Cygnus.
Older series can be seen in my portfolio: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p162076373
I have shot many targets with several focal lengths.
Due that, I will publish some of my material as an image sets, with different field of view and detail levels.
The fractal nature of our universe stands out nicely by this way and it will make the orientation more easy.
Many times, it's difficult to understand the image scale of astronomical images.
Due that, I will add a Moon circle in some of the images to show the angular scale in a sky.
The full Moon has an angular size of ~30 arc minutes, that's equal to ~0,5 degrees.
Cygnus zoom in series, a study of the apparent scale in the sky.
Note. The apparent size of the full Moon is marked as a gray circle at lover Right corner.
Images are in mapped colors from emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen & B=Oxygen.
Location in the Sky, star map overlay
Images used in this series:
A giant, 18-panels, mosaic of the Cygnus constellation with 200mm canon EF at f1.8:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html
North America and Pelican Nebulae with 300mm Tokina AT-X at f2.8:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ngc-7000-north-america-pelican-nebulae.html
Closeup of North America Nebula with Meade LX 200 GPS, reduced to f5 ~2000mm:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ngc-7000-closeup-hst-palette-preview.html
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Cygnus collection as a poster
Treasures of Cygnus
I made a collection out of my images from the Cygnus constellation.
At center lays a giant 18-panels mosaic of Cygnus nebulae as a natural color composition. Surrounding closeup images, seen in large central mosaic, are in HST-palette. All images are shot with the Baader narrow band filter set, H-alpha, S-II & O-III.
Original, full resolution, poster has a massive size, ~21.000 x 16.000 pixels!
All images used in this presentation, with technical details and labels, can be found from my portfolio at:
Ps.
This mid winter has been worst I can remember up here 65N... Over two Months 100% cloud cover and it doesn't look any better in near future either. Very frustrating.
Friday, January 6, 2012
A video from Autumn 2011 images
Autumn season 2011
Three minute video, 640x480 pixels, from my images of Autu mn 2011.
(If you have a slow connection, please, hit the pause and wait movie to load)
Here is a direct link to my main work from last Autumn, a giant 18-panel mosaic of Cygnus nebulae:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html
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