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Sunday, February 16, 2020

Panorama mosaic, Cederblad 214, Sharpless 170 and supernova remnant CTB1

I published the Cosmic Question Mark, Cederblad 214 and Sharpless 170 at February 9,
his morning I published the photo of supernova remnant CTB1 (Abell 85). Photos are overlapping, so I was able to build a mosaic image out of them. image spans about ten degrees of sky vertically, that's as large as twenty full Moons side by side.! (The CTB1 at lower center has a same angular diameter as our Moon.)  Photo is taken with the Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera and Astrodon narrowband filters. Info about my current setup here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-frankenstein-monster-my-current.html


A two frame mosaic panorama from constellation Cassiopeia
Click for a large image, it's worth it!

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

Upper part of the mosaic image
Click for a large image


Image details here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/02/new-photo-of-cederblad-214-cosmic.html


Lower part of the mosaic image Click for a large image


Image details here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/02/ctb1-supernova-remnant-in-cassiopeia.html




Technical details
Click for a large image

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 for both panels
H-alpha, 21 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 7 h
O-III, 2x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 40 min.
S-II, 2 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 40 min.


An older longer focal length image of CTB1 from 2016
Please, click for a large image

More info about this photo here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/01/abell-85-ctb1-dim-galactic-supernova.html


An older longer focal length image of Cederblad 214 from 2016
Please, click for a large image

A detail shot from the bright central region of the image at the top.  This photo was taken with my new setup, Celestron Edge HD 1100 f7, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera and the Astrodon narrowband filters, Spring 2014. The original blog post from 2012, with technical details, can be seen HERE

CTB1, a supernova remnant in Cassiopeia

This has been a very cloudy imaging season up here 65N. Last Friday we had about five hours for clear weather before the clouds rolled in. I managed to get just enough exposures for this dim supernova remnant in Cassiopeia. I have shot this target before with much longer focal length instrument. It's nice to see CTB1 in large context when imaging with Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens. 


CTB1 (Abell 85)
Please, click for a large image, it's worth it.

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


A closer look
Please, click for a large image




An older longer focal length image back from 2016
Please, click for a large image

More info about this photo here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2016/01/abell-85-ctb1-dim-galactic-supernova.html




INFO

Abell 85 is a very faint supernova remnant in constellation Cassiopeia. It's difficult to image with any details due to extremely low surface brightness. Abell 85 has a largish diameter, about half a degree, it has a same apparent diameter as a full Moon. The physical diameter is about 98 light years across. This SNR locates about 9800 light years from the Earth. CTB1 was originally thought to be a planetary nebula and it was included the Abell catalog of planetary nebulae under a name Abell 85. It was confirmed to be a supernova remnant by Willis & Dickel at 1971.



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, 9 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 3 h
O-III, 1x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 20 min.
S-II, 1 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 20 min.


A single calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame as it comes from the camera (Downscaled)



Friday, February 14, 2020

Monday, February 10, 2020

Cederblad 214, the Cosmic Question mark, in visual colors

This photo was taken with my "new" imaging system. I managed to mate an old Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera optics with the Apogee Alta U16 astro camera and filter wheel. Some angle grinder was needed to have enough back focus... More info here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-frankenstein-monster-my-current.html

This photo of Cosmic Question Mark has a great symbolic value for me. The cosmic curiosity is the very reason I'm doing this difficult, and sometimes frustrating, form of nature photographing. 

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Cederblad 214 and Sharpless 170,  
Please, click for a full size image

Visual palette combined from emissions of ionized elements. Red = hydrogen + 33% sulfur, Green = oxygen and Blue = oxygen + 20% hydrogen to compensate missing h-beta emission.

INFO

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.


Orientation in the sky

Cederblad 214 can  be seen at upper left corner. Image shows its location related to constellation Cepheus.


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 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 4 h
O-III, 1x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 20 min.
S-II, 1 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 20 min.