Friday, June 6, 2014
A collection of a starless Veil nebula shots
Sometimes I'm publishing experimental starless versions of my astronomical images. They'll show the actual nebula better and have a kind of mystique feel.
Human brains has a tendency to form some quasi logical shapes out of the cloud of random dots, like stars in this case. Without stars, the shapes in a gas cloud stands out much better.
A collection of Veil Nebula supernova remnant images without stars
The Veil Nebula supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus without stars.
Original image and information can be seen HERE
Closeup of the Eastern Veil, IC 1340
Original image and information can be seen HERE
IC 1340 in ionized Oxygen light, O-III
The Pickering's Triangle
Original image and information can be seen HERE
Pickering's Triangle in ionized Oxygen light, O-III
A closeup of the Eastern veil
Original image and information can be seen HERE
Eastern Veil in ionized Oxygen light, O-III
The Witch Broom Nebula
Original image and information can be seen HERE
Witch Broom Nebula in ionized Oxygen light, O-III
Veil Nebula supernova remnant with stars
Original image and information can be seen HERE
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Cone Nebula as an animated zoom in series
I have shot many targets with a several focal lengths and instruments.
Due to that, I'm able to publish some of my photos as an image set, with a 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.
Zooming into the Cone Nebula
An animated GIF, 3,4MB
The Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Note. an apparent size of the Moon is marked as a circle.
Moon has an angular diameter of ~0,5 degrees, that's ~30 arc minutes.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
North America Nebula, a zoom in animation
I have shot many targets with a several focal lengths and instruments.
Due to that, I'm able to publish some of my photos as an image set, with a 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.
An animated GIF, 3,4MB
Zooming into the North America Nebula, NGC 7000
A closeup of NGC 7000, the Great Wall
Buy a photographic print from HERE
An animated 3D study of the North America Nebula can be seen HERE
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Note. an apparent size of the Moon is marked as a circle.
Moon has an angular diameter of ~0,5 degrees, that's ~30 arc minutes.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
An animated zoom in series to the Bubble Nebula
I have shot many targets with a several focal lengths and instruments.
Due to that, I'm able to publish some of my photos as an image set, with a 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.
An animated GIF, 3MB
Zooming into the Bubble Nebula
A closeup picture of the Bubble formation
Buy a photographic print from HERE
An animated 3D study of the Bubble Nebula can be seen HERE
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Note. an apparent size of the Moon is marked as a circle.
Moon has an angular diameter of ~0,5 degrees, that's ~30 arc minutes.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
The largest Fine Art print in Finland
About three weeks ago I posted about my astronomical photo as a public artwork.
This very large, 10x3m, photographic print on aluminium was produced by a Finnish company Dialab.
They made an inquiry from the Finnish Museum of Photography about this print. The museum confirmed, that this is the largest photographic fine art print in Finland. The photo is located in main lobby of The "Oulu Region Joint Authority for Education" in Haukipudas
Cirrus of Cygnus
The largest fine art photo in Finland
The photo is printed on aluminium and it has a glossy finishing. This is the largest fine art print in Finland.
The size of the photographic prin is over 3 x 10 meters (= 10 x 33 feet) Even in that size, the image is very sharp, since the original image is in very high resolution due to mosaic technique used.
The size of the photographic prin is over 3 x 10 meters (= 10 x 33 feet) Even in that size, the image is very sharp, since the original image is in very high resolution due to mosaic technique used.
More info about the print and the image HERE
Monday, May 12, 2014
Cepheus, an animated zoom in series to the IC 1396
I have shot many targets with several focal lengths.
Due to that, I'm able to 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.
An animated zoom in series to an Elephant's Trunk Nebula
A closeup picture of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula in IC 1396
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Note. an apparent size of the Moon is marked as a circle.
Moon has an angular diameter of ~0,5 degrees, that's ~30 arc minutes.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Heart Nebula, an animated zoom in series to the Melotte 15
I have shot many targets with several focal lengths.
Due to that, I'm able to 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.
An animated zoom in series to a Melotte 15 cluster
An animated GIF, 1,9MB
A closeup picture of Melotte 15 in the heart of the Heart Nebula
More info and the technical details HERE
Buy a photographic print from HERE
A collection of Heart Nebula images HERE
An experimental 3D-study of the Melotte 15
More animations and info can be seen HERE
A study about the apparent scale in the sky
Note. an apparent size of the Moon is marked as a circle.
Moon has an angular diameter of ~0,5 degrees, that's ~30 arc minutes.
Click for a large image
Friday, May 9, 2014
Simeis 147 supernova remnant in Taurus, with and without stars
Now and then I'm publishing some experimental material of mine. This time I made an animated image about Simeis 147 SNR in Taurus. In this animation, the supernova remnant can be seen with and without stars. Human brains has a tendency to form quasi shapes from a random cloud of dots, like stars in this case. This is a very effective method to show the actual nebula and its details.
I'm planning to use the star removal procedure to hunt down some old and very diffused planetary nebulae, located at a dense star field in the Milky Way. They might have a very large angular dimensions and the surface brightness is extremely low. Due to that, they get easily buried under a dense star field.
Simeis 147 (Sh2-240)
Stars vs Starless
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Original image of the Simeis 147
More images and the technical details can be seen here:
PS.
You might know, that I lost my imaging setup at last January. Due to some serious electrical problems all the components are fried beyond any repair. Least it'll cost more than a new scope.
I haven't been able to find a corporate sponsors yet, for the new telescope and the mount. I do have couple of sponsors for the cameras though. I'll inform more about them later. Please contact, if you are interested to become a sponsor! astroanarchy (at) gmail.com
The sponsor will have lots of positive visibility for a many years.
The sponsor will have lots of positive visibility for a many years.
Some info about my work as an astronomical photographer
J-P Metsavainio
- Born 1964
- studies Art, Architecture, experienced in telecommunication manufacturing and development.
- Specialized in the astrophotography since 1998, I love to reveal some of the hidden beauty of the universe around us.
Some publications:
- Eight NASA APOD's at the moment (Astronomy Picture Of the Day)
- Many images in National Geographic image portfolio and several astronomical images of the week.
- Many images in the Science Photo Library archive in London
- The astronomer Phil Plait collected an annual list of the best astronomical images for the year 2012.
(My experimental image of IC 1396 was selected to this list. Nuber sixth from the top.) http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/bad_astronomy/2012/12/best_astronomy_images_2012_see_the_most_beautiful_images_of_the_universe.html
- My photo of the constellation Cygnus was selected as one of the best amateur astronomy photographs of the past four years by the Daily Telegraph 2014.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/picture-galleries/9622374/The-best-amateur-astronomy-photographs-of-the-past-four-years.html?frame=2374492
- Lots of publishing by many printed and online magazines, some logos are shown at top right corner here in my blog.
I'm also a regular speaker in astromical happenings like NEAIC New York (North East Astro Imaging Conference) and the European version of it CEDIC (Central european Deepsky Imaging Conference)
My photos
Image portfolio:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/
Blog, works mostly as an imaging diary and a publishing channel for some of my experimental work:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/
Facebook, I'm publishing only an astrophotography related materila here:
https://www.facebook.com/jp.metsavainio
Best regards and clear skies,
J-P Metsavainio, Astro Anarchy Observatory, Finland
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
My astroimages converted to 3D, a collection of movie clips
I have converted my astronomical images to a various 3D-formats. This time I made a video collection out of my experimental nebula 3D-models.
My astronomical images as an experimental 3D-conversionsThis is a looped 14 min video, click to start and stop. Original movie is in HD720p resolution.
Click the Youtube logo at lower right corner to see this video in Youtube.
Then, please, click the gear symbol, to see the video at 720p HD-format.
3D-stereo images from my astrophotos can be seen HERE
All my astronomical images can be seen HERE
How the 3D-models are done?
Due to enormous distances of cosmic objects, no real parallax can be imaged to get a 3D-information. I have developed a method to turn my images to a 3D-models.
Here is a short and simplified explanation, how 3D images are done:
My 3D-experiments are a mixture of scientific data, deduction and an artistic impression.
I collect distance and other useful scientific information before I do my 3d-conversion.
Usually there are known stars, coursing the ionization, so I can place them at right relative distance. If I know a distance to the nebula, I can finetune distances of the stars so, that right amount of stars are front and behind of the object. I use a "rule of thumb" method for stars, brighter is
closer, but if a real distance is know, I try to use it.
Many shapes can be figured out just by looking carefully the structures in nebula. Like dark nebulae must be at front of the emission ones to show. The general structure of many star forming regions are very same. There is a group of newly born stars, as an open cluster inside of the nebula. The stellar wind from the stars is then blowing the gas away around the cluster and forming a kind of gavitation, a hole, around it. The pillar like formations in the nebula must point to a source of stellar wind, for the same reason.
Since nebulae are practically transparent and the gas itself is emitting light, the thickness of the gas can be estimated by its brightness. Emission of ionized Oxygen, O-III, needs lots of energy. For that reason, Oxygen emission seen in the photo must be at close proximity of the ionizing star(s).
The processing workflow itself is kind of sculpting and the result is always an approximate reality.
I turned the original 2D-image to 3D by using a surface modeling software.
Image is first divided to layers by its content in a image processing software. Each layer is then projected to a 3D-surface. To build the 3D-surfaces and to have a good and realistic forms, I'm using a software, that converts the shades in the image to a 3D-form. I have semi automated the whole process, so it doesn't take too much time to make a 3D-conversion.
The nice thing about the final 3D-model is, that only image elements from the original 2D-image are used!
A typical surface model without textures
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Astro Anarchy get published
Yesterday was an opening ceremony for the new facilities of The "Oulu Region Joint Authority for Education" in Haukipudas. One of my images was selected there as a public artwork in a main lobby.
The Cirrus of Cygnus
A very large photographic print on aluminium, 3x10m
Even in that size, the image is very sharp, since the original image is in very high resolution due to mosaic technique used. An info board for the artwork can be seen next to the door at middle right.
An opening ceremony
About the photo
Click for a very large image, 3000 pixels wide and 4,5MB
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
The image above spans about 15 degrees of sky horizontally, that's 30 fool Moons side by side in a sky!
There are nine panels seamlessly stitched together. Each panel has been shot three times for a color image by using emission line filters for Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulfur. A camera lens, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, was used with a cooled astronomical camera, QHY9. Original image is about 20000 pixels wide . Total exposure time is around 90h.
The "Cirrus of Cygnus" is a part of a much large image of this area.
Note! a very large image, 2300 pixels wide and 4,7MB
More info in this blog post: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/12/cygnus-mosaic-18-panels-and-22-x-14.html
Couple of closeups from a mosaic image above
Original blog post about the Propeller Nebula: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/10/first-light-for-autumn-season-2011.html
Orientation in constellation Cygnus
It does look like a Cirrus cloud
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Tone Mapping V2.0, my lecture at NEAIC conference, New York
Click the image to download a PDF-tutorial
Click the image to download a PDF-tutorial
I'm offering my development work for free.
Donations are welcome especially since I don't have any equipments to continue my imaging work.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Two collections of planetary nebulae in scale
Since I don't have any equipment to continue my imaging work, I have organized my image archives. This time I made an image collection out of the planetary nebulae imaged by me. I'm trying to show here, how large they appear to be in the sky. There is an image of the Moon as a scale in the posters. The Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arc minutes, that's equal to 0,5 degrees. I have made a similar poster out of the supernova remnants, it can be seen HERE.
A collection of planetary nebulae as a poster
Click for a full resolution image
A collection of very large planetary nebulae as a poster
Click for a full resolution image. Please, read the NOTE under the image!
NOTE!
A friend of mine, Sakib Rasool, contacted me for this posters. There is an error in second one.
Sh2-223 is actually an emission nebula. You can read a paper about it here: http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2006/29/aa4881-06/aa4881-06.html
INFO
For more information about palnetary nebulae: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula
All images are emission line images shot with a Baader narrowband filter set, cooled astronomical camera QHY and Meade LX200 GPS.
Poster 1
- NGC 246, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/10/planetary-nebula-ngc-246.html
- Messier 97, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/03/owl-nebula-messier-97.html
- IC 5150, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/07/ic-5150-planetary-nebula.html
- Jones-Emberson 1, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/03/jones-emberson-1-palnetary-nebula.html
- Cat eye Nebula, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/01/cats-eye-nebula-reprocessed.html
- Jones 1, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/11/jones-1-extreme-dim-planetary-nebula.html
- Messier 76, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/11/m-76-little-dumbbell-nebula.html
- Bug Nebula, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/07/ngc-6302-bug-nebula.html
- Sharpless 188, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/11/sh2-188-project-finalized.html
- Ring Nebula, M57, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/10/m57-ring-nebula-project-finalized.html
- Messier 27, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/messier-27-dumbbell-nebula.html
- Sharpless 274, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/02/medusa-nebula-sh2-271-project-finalized.html
- Helix Nebula, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/06/helix-nebula-with-some-new-photons.html
Poster 2
- Sharpless 129 and OU4, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/12/a-start-of-new-project-cepheus-mosaic.html
- Sharpless 223, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2009/04/sh2-223-224-and-225-lightened-up.html NOTE. actually this is an emission nebula, not a planetary one.
- Sharpless 216, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/02/sh2-216-project-finalized.html
- A PN in NGC 1499, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/06/ngc-1499-california-nebula-reprocessed.html
- PuWe 1, http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/03/puwe1-planetary-nebula-project.html
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Best amateur astronomy photos of the past four years, by the Telegraph
My photo of the constellation Cygnus was selected as one of the best amateur astronomy photographs of the past four years by the Telegraph. The collection of images can be seen HERE, my image is a number 09.
A mosaic image of constellation Cygnus
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Native size of this image is over 15.000 x 10.000 pixels.
More information and images HERE
A mosaic image of constellation Cygnus
Reprocessed, NOTE. a large image 2300 pixels wide and 4.3MB
More information and images HERE
Monday, March 24, 2014
A collection of large supernova remnants as a poster
Since I don't have any equipment to continue my imaging work, I have organized my image archives. This time I made an image collection out of the supernova remnants with a large angular scale. I'm trying to show here, how large they really are in the sky. There is an image of the Moon as a scale in the poster. The Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arc minutes, that's equal to 0,5 degrees.
A collection of large supernova remnants as a poster
Images are in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements. NOTE a large image, 1900x2500 pixels and 6MB
Images are in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements. NOTE a large image, 1900x2500 pixels and 6MB
All images are in Mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Note. The Moon as a scale to show the apparent scale in the sky.
R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Note. The Moon as a scale to show the apparent scale in the sky.
The same collection in visual spectrum
Click for a full resolution poster. NOTE a large image, 1900x2500 pixels and 6MB
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen. This is very close to a visual colors.
Note. The Moon as a scale to show the apparent scale in the sky.
More information about SNR images above
Links to my original photos with technical details
- Simeis 147: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/02/siemis-147-new-data-added.html
- IC 443: astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/03/supernova-remnant-ic-443.html
- Sharpless 224: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/01/reprocessed-supernova-remnants.html
- Sharpless 221: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2014/01/sh2-221-supernova-remnant-in-auriga.html
- The Veil Nebula: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/12/veil-nebula-unveiled.html
- G65.3+5.7SNR: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/12/an-other-supernova-remnant-in-cygnus.html
- The Crab Nebula, M1: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2010/03/m1-crab-nebula-finalized.html
All the images are shot with the camera optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 monster lens full open, Baader narrowband filters (H-a, O-III and S-II) and the QHY9, a cooled astronomical camera with the KAF 8300 CCD chip. Very long exposure times are used, 15 to 50 hours per image, to reveal dim and diffused structures buried in the dense star fields. All images are guided with the Meade LX200 GPS 12" and the Lodestar guider. Meade works also an imaging platform for the camera lens.
In this collection, there are couple of very rare images, like Simeis 147, Sharpless 224. There are also two "firs light" images out of two super nova remnants, Sharpless 221(Sh2-221) and G65.3+5.7SNR. I haven't been able to find any other color images out of them, showing the whole SNR.
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