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All the material on this website is copyrighted to J-P Metsavainio, if not otherwise stated. Any content on this website may not be reproduced without the author’s permission.

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Thursday, November 1, 2018

The sky on fire, filaments of the Western cygnus

I have shot the constellation Cygnus for many years with different instruments. Due to that, I'm able to build mosaic by using some overlapping images.

This is a two frame mosaic from the Western part of the Cygnus nebula complex. Blueish hues are emission from the Cygnus Shell, a supernova remnant W63

This two panel mosaic image has a total exposure time of about 28 hours.
Each panel is shot with Celestron Edge 11" reflecting telescope (with a 0.7 focal reducer), Apogee Alta U16 cooled astrocamera and Astrodon narrowband filter set (5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III)

The Sky on Fire
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Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements, R=Hydrogen + Sulphur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + 10% Hydrogen to compensate the missing H-beta emission.




Photo in mapped colors
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Image is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. This mosaic image of two individual panels covers about one and half degrees of sky vertically.



H-alpha emission alone
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Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Filaments of Cygnus




I have shot the constellation Cygnus for many years with different instruments. Due to that, I'm able to build mosaic images from my overlapping material. This time I made a four panel mosaic showing remains of  the two exploded stars in Western Cygnus.

Bluish hues at left part of the panoramic image are from supernova remnant W63. At most right lays the planetary nebula PM 1-320.

This four panel panoramic mosaic has a total exposure time of about 35 hours.
Each panel is shot with Celestron Edge 11" reflecting telescope (with a 0.7 focal reducer), Apogee Alta U16 cooled astrocamera and Astrodon narrowband filter set (5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III)

Filaments of cygnus
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Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements, R=Hydrogen + Sulphur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + 10% Hydrogen to compensate the missing H-beta emission.



H-alpha alone
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This photo shows the light from an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha emission) alone 



Filaments of Cygnus in mapped colors
Please, click for a large image

Image is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. This mosaic image of four individual panels covers about four degrees of sky vertically.






Monday, October 29, 2018

Clouds of Swan



A new photo from last night. Detail shot from the central area of the Cygnus nebula complex.


Clouds of Swan
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Image is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. 


An experimental starless version
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The details of gas formation are standing out better in this starless version.


A two panel mosaic
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My older photo of central Cygnus was overlapping with the new image, so I was able to build a two frame panoramic mosaic.


Orientation in Cygnus Nebula complex
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The area of two panel mosaic is marked as a white rectangle.

Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f10 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AOL

Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Exposure times for both panels together

H-alpha, 9 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 3 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 1 h.
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 1 h


Thursday, October 25, 2018

This new photos shows the LBN 251 and companions in Cygnus


My latest photo show a busy area in Cygnus, there are not too many photos out of this area alone.
My large mosaic image of cygnus shows this object group as pow tie shaped formation.



Bow Tie of LBN 251, LBN 239 and the IC 1311
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This two panel mosaic image is in mapped colours, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulphur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. 


H-alpha emission only
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This grayscale photo shows just the emission of an ionized hydrogen, H-alpha,


Closeup of LBN 239
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The dense star group at bottom left is the open cluster IC 1311


Orientation in the large context
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The area of interest is marked as a white rectangle 


Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f10 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AOL

Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Exposure times for both panels together

H-alpha, 18 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 6 h
O-III, 9 x 1200 s, binned 4x4 = 3 h.
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 4x4 = 3 h
Total 12 h.