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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

All my photos from the Winter season 2020


We have lost the astronomical darkness for about six months, up here 65 North.
Next time I'm going to be able to do the deep sky imaging will be at mid September 2020.

This imaging season was different than before. I was able to have my imaging system up and running very late, at first week of January 2020. I build my imaging system around an old Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens by mating the Apogee Alta U16 camera with it. Not an easy task due to very large CCD in Apogee camera and lack of back focus distance in Tokina lens.
I even used an angle grinder to shorten up the lens!
Some info and images about my imaging tools can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-frankenstein-monster-my-current.html

I made a poster format presentation about all of my new photos from the Winter season 2020.
There are some very rare images from this imaging season. Photo 2 in poster might be the first three band image of this nebula pair. Photo 12 might be the first color image ever showing this area in sky. Boths targets are dim to extreme and lots of exposure time was needed even though I was using very fast optical configuration  (Under sampled optics, ~6 arcseconds/pixel)



Winter season 2020
A very large image, 3300 x 4800 pixels and 17 MB

All of the photos in this poster has been taken with the Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lanes, Apogee Alta U16 astronomical camera and the Astrodon narrowband filter set. (5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III) All photos have been shot from my down town observatory. Location is very light polluted, the sky quality is  Bortle scale eight!


INFO
  1. Cederblad 214 and Sh2-170, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/02/new-photo-of-cederblad-214-cosmic.html
  2. Supernova remnant and a planetary nebula in a same field of view, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/04/two-ways-to-go-in-same-field-of-view.html
  3. From Bubble to Cave Nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-bubble-to-cave-round-ii.html
  4. Supernova remnant CTB1, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/02/ctb1-supernova-remnant-in-cassiopeia.html
  5. Supernova remnant IC 443, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/supernova-remnant-ic-443-wide-field.html
  6. NGC 1499, the California Nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-deep-view-to-california-nebula-in.html
  7. IC 405 & IC 410, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-photo-deep-in-to-darkness.html¨
  8. IC 63 & NGC 281, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/ic-63-and-ngc-281.html
  9. Heart Nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/deep-in-to-my-heart-ic-1805-in-mapped.html
  10. IC 1396, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/ic-1396-wide-field-reprocessed.html
  11. The Grande Mosaic of Auriga, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-grande-mosaic-of-auriga.html
  12. Sharpless 205, NGC 1491 and  Lynds Bright Nebula 696, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-two-frame-mosaic-photo-of-sharpless.html
  13. Great Mosaic of Cepheus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/great-mosaic-of-cepheus.html
  14. Simeis 147, The Birth of Venus, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-birth-of-venus.html



www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 7:29 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Grayscale Wonders part II


All the photos, I have published, are taken with a grayscale astronomical camera. Each color channel is shot separately and then combined to RGB color image. Since I'm doing only narrowband imaging due the extensive light pollution color channels are are emission line images. Most of the time I'm capturing three emission lines hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen. (H-alpha, S-II and O-III)

Usually most of the details are in hydrogen alpha emission line. Gray scale images can be really beautiful and many times I personally like them best. I will publish now some of my images from this winter season as a grayscale compositions. This is a part II of Grayscale Wonders, part one can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/04/greyscale-wonders.html

Please, open the full size photo by clicking the image, it's really worth it!



A two frame mosaic photo of Sharpless 205, NGC 1491 and Lynds Bright Nebula 696

Image details and a mapped color version can be found here, 
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-two-frame-mosaic-photo-of-sharpless.html
nebula in visual colors can be seen here,
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/sharpless-205-ngc-1491-and-lynds-bright.html


Great Mosaic of Cepheus
Image details and a mapped color version can be found here, 
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/great-mosaic-of-cepheus.html

Great Mosaic of Auriga

Image details and a mapped color version can be found here, 
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-grande-mosaic-of-auriga.html







www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 2:36 PM 0 comments
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Sunday, April 5, 2020

Supernova remnant IC 443 in visual spectrum



I have published this image in mapped colors at March 2, this time I have combined the narrowband emission channels so, that the result is very close to a visual colors.



IC 443, NGC 2175 & Messier 35
Click for a large image, it's worth it!

The red glow from an ionized hydrogen (H-alpha) is dominating the view, bluish hues are from an ionized oxygen (O-III)
H-alpha alone
Click for a large image

3h of light emitted by an ionized hydrogen, H-alpha.



INFO

IC 443

IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini. It locates visually near the star Eta Geminorum at distance of about 5000 light years.
IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds

NGC 2175

One of the reasons i took this image is the "Monkey head nebula", NGC 2175, at lower right corner.
I have shot this area with a much longer focal length back in 2015. At my image there is a very faint extended shape visible in my photo. I wanted to see, if I'm able to catch it with my current imaging system as well. This very dim feature is strongly visible in my new photo too! (Monkey head nebula is rotated 180 degrees in large image below.)



Older long focal length photo of NGC 2175 from Spring season 2015, more info here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2015/03/ngc-2174-monkey-head-nebula-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, 9 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 3 h
O-III, 3 x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 1 h
S-II, 3 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 1 h


www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 10:34 AM 0 comments
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Saturday, April 4, 2020

Greyscale wonders



All the photos, I have published, are taken with a grayscale astronomical camera. Each color channel is shot separately and then combined to RGB color image. Since I'm doing only narrowband imaging due the extensive light pollution color channels are are emission line images. Most of the time I'm capturing three emission lines hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen. (H-alpha, S-II and O-III)

Usually most of the details are in hydrogen alpha emission line. Gray scale images can be really beautiful and many times I personally like them best. I will publish now some of my images from this winter season as a grayscale compositions.

Please, open the full size photo by clicking the image, it's really worth it!

Deep in the Heart Nebula

Heart Nebula in light of an ionized hydrogen, color image and technical details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/01/deep-in-to-my-heart-ic-1805-in-mapped.html


Supernova remnant IC 443

Color image and technical details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/supernova-remnant-ic-443-wide-field.html


IC 405 & 410
Color image and technical details can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-photo-deep-in-to-darkness.html








www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 10:52 AM 0 comments
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