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Saturday, December 14, 2013

APOD by NASA, Astro Anarchy gets published



Astronomy Picture of the Day

My shot of the Bubble Nebula was selected as an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) by NASA.
You can see the NASA page here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131214.html

The Bubble Nebula
In constellation Cassiopeia 


Originla blog post about this image, with technical details, can be seen here:

You can buy a real high quality photographic print from HERE



This is my sixth APOD, older ones can be seen here:








Thursday, December 12, 2013

An other supernova remnant in Cygnus, G65.3+5.7 SNR



This is a rarely imaged target. I haven't been able to find an other color image of it, showing the whole supernova remnant. This is also one of the most difficult targets, I have ever shot. Due to very dense star field, large angular dimension and a very diffused structure this is even more difficult target, than a Simeis 147 supernova remnant in Taurus. Total exposure time of 32h was needed to have this kind of "thin" image.

G65.3+5.7 SNR has about the same angular dimensions, than brighter and more famous remnant in Cygnus, the Veil Nebula.  The angular dimensions are about 3x4 degrees.
NOTE, this image is updated at 20.01.2014. There is now a better H-a channel and the background is practically full of ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha.

G65.3+5.7 SNR
A supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus


A bicolor image of the supernova remnant. An ionized Hydrogen emission (H-alpha) can be seen as Red and an ionized Oxygen emission (O-III) as Blue. Buy a photographic print from HERE


A detail image of G65.3+5.7 SNR
So many stars...

1:1 closeup from the original full resolution frame, the background is practically full of stars.


Orientation




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 arcseconds/pixel
H-alpha, 51x1200s = 17h
O-III, 45x1200s = 15h
Total exposure time 32h

A single calibrated and stretched 20min O-III frame

Heavily stretched 1200s frame of the strongest channel, ionized Oxygen (O-III), doesn't show much.





Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Veil Nebula as an animation, stars vs starless



One of my experimental images. With suppressed stars, details of the supernova remnant pops up nicely.
Original blog post about the Veil Nebula can be seen HERE

The Veil Nebula 
A supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus









Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Veil Nebula unveiled



The exhibition is over, lots of visitors and many photographic prints has been sold.
Many thanks to all visitors and buyers!

I have some new material waiting for publishing, even though the weather has been really bad up here.
I had some technical problems with my longer focal length instrumentation and I had to move back to use my wide field tools. Veil Nebula in this post has been shot with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics.
There is now 13h h-alpha light, collected from years 2008, 2012 and 2013.

Veil Nebula
Supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements, 
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
Click for a large image. Buy a photographic print from HERE

Info

Veil Nebula is a cloud of ionized gas and dust, leftovers from an exploded star. The star went off some 5000-8000 years ago at distance of about 1470 light years. This, relatively faint target, is difficult to image due to the large angular diameter, about three degrees, and a dense star field.
This is a second version of this object, older version can be seen Here

Veil Nebula in mapped colors

Mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

A detail image, in original 1:1 resolution

Click to see in full scale. A detail image of the Veil Nebula to show a resolution. Not a bad one for a 200mm Camera lens. (Canon EF 200mm f1.8, full open)


An experimental starless image of the Veil Nebula SNR

The starless image is unveiling lots of details, otherwise hiding under a dense star field.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

A 3D-study of the Veil nebula SNR


This is a looped video, click to start and stop. Original movie is in HD1080p resolution.

Original blog post about the 3D-study and more animations behind this link:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/02/the-veil-nebula-experimental-3d-study.html


Some older detail images from the Veil Nebula



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 50% 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 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures for H-alpha:
7x1200s, from 2008
13x1200 from 2012
19x1200 from this Autumn season 2013
Total 39x1200s = 13h
S-II and O-III information are from an older image