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Sunday, January 19, 2020

An animated Heart Nebula, IC1805 with and without stars

I have originally published this deep image of IC1805 at January 14 2020. This time I made a starless version of  the image. I'm usin the starless version of photo in my processing routine and sometimes they look kind of interesting. The actual nebula stands out very nicely without stars.

My "new" imaging system combines a Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 lens to a large CCD of Apogee Alta U16 astro camera with 4096x4096 9 micron pixels. This combination has a resolution of about 5 arc seconds/pixels. Undersampling imaging system is a great tool to bring out very dim and diffused nebulae very fast. This photo of Heart Nebula has only 2h of H-alpha light and just 30 min O-III light.

IC 1805 without stars
Please, click for a full size image

It's easier to see the actual nebula when stars are removed. Human brains has a tendency to form quasi logical shapes and forms from a random cloud of dots. Famous example of this phenomena is Percival Lowell and canals of Mars.


An animated image, IC 1805 with and without stars
Please, click for a full size image




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
Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200

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

Total exposure time
H-alpha, 12 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 3x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 30 min..




From Bubble to Cave Nebula in visual colors

At January 10. I shot few lights for this busy area in Cassiopeia from the Bubble Nebula to Cave nebula. The Tokina 300mm AT-x f2.8 camera lens combined to Apogee Alta U16 camera is a very good to capturing photons. The combination of fast f2.8 optics and 9 micron pixels, (4096 x 4096 pixels) goes very deep very fast. (First light photo here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/first-light-for-winter-season-2019-20.html)


From Bubble to Cave Nebula
Please, click for a large image!


Image is in visual palette combined from emissions of  ionized elements. Red=H-alpha + S-II, Green= O-III and Blue=O-III + 25%H-alpha to compensate missing H-beta emission.
Same data in mapped colors can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-light-for-my-wide-field-imaging.html


Orientation
Please, click for a large image!

The area of the new photo is marked as a white rectangle. Info about this image here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-grande-finale-of-cepheus-project.html


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
Tokina AT-x f2.8 camera lens

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200


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

Total exposure time

H-alpha, 18 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2,5 h
O-III, 6x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 1 h.
S-II, 2 x 600 s. binned 1x1 = 20 min.



Thursday, January 16, 2020

Deep view to IC 1396

This is the first light photo for my "new" wide field imaging system based on Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera optics and Apogee Alta U16 camera. I have published a mapped color version at January 13. This time I'm publishing the same target in visual colors. This palette is combined from the light emitted by the ionized elements, H-alpha = Red, O-III = Green and O-III + 20% H-alpha = Blue.

IC 1396 in visual colors
Please, click for a large image

Red glow of an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha) is dominating the view, bluish hues at center are from an ionized oxygen (O-III). There is some very faint O-III emission visible at nine o'clock position, near the left edge. I can see some circular shape there as well. It might be a very dim and diffused planetary nebula, I must look into this later. It can be seen better in mapped color version of this photo, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/first-light-for-winter-season-2019-20.html

INFO
IC 1396 spans hundreds of light years at distance of about 3000 light years in constellation Cepheus. The famous formation of glowing gases, the "Elephant's Trunk Nebula" can be seen at four o'clock position.
This is an active star formation region and it has several massive young stars inside it, coursing the ionization of elements of this emission nebula.


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
Tokina AT-x f2.8 camera lens

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200


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

Total exposure time

H-alpha, 12 x 600 s, binned 1x1 = 2 h
O-III, 6x 600 s, binned 4x4 = 1 h.
S-II, 3 x 600 s. binned 4x4 = 0,5 h


Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Firework


I was imaging at December 31. Since my observatory locates at centrum of the city, there was lots of fireworks going on around. One of my 20 min sub frames captured a big one! Image was taken with a Tokina 300mm f2.8 camera lens, 5 nm H-alpha filter and Apogee Alta U16 astronomical camera.


FIREWORK
Click for a large image

H-alpha shot of firework looks kind of neat


Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200


Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha

Total exposure time

H-alpha, 1 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 20 min.