Astro Anarchy

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Butterfly Nebula in 3D-stereo pair

First image pair is for "Parallel Vision" method. Second one is for "Cross Vision" method. Viewing instructions can be found here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/search/label/Stereo%20image%20viewing%20instructions

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Butterfly Nebula, second try

This narrow band color image is a combination of two channels, H-alpha = Red

O-III = Blue. Green channel is Synthesized from Red and Blue. -

Conditions were not too good last night, hard wind and clouds.

Guiding was really difficult doe the wind but PHD-guiding software does its best.

There was jus enough gaps between clouds, that I managed shot data for H-alpha

and O-III not enough though.

Actually part of the frames are shot trough not so thin clouds, maybe

H-alpha acts as a cloud filter : )

S-II data had to be left to the next time after the clouds rolled in.

Part of the NGC6888 the "Crescent Nebula" can be seen in the bottom of the image.

Imaging data:

Camera,

QHY8

- Filters,

Baader 7nm H-alpha and Baader 8,5nm O-III

Optics,

Tokina AT-X 300mm @ f2.8

- Exposures,

5 X 1200s H-alpha

3 X 1200 O-III

+ flats and bias

- Guiding,

LX200 GPS 12" + PHD-guiding and Lodestar

H-alpha channel

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Butterfly Nebula from bad night

Sometimes there is days (nights), when everything goes wrong.

Last night was one of them.

First I had problems with my laptop and I had to reboot it several times.

It's a old well served Dell and booting it up takes for ever.

Then one of the cord to telescope was damaged and it took about an hour to

figure it out. After that I was ready so start my narrowband imaging session with

three filters.

First I selected H-alpha filter and got everything ready for imaging.

Guider was working fine and I started recording. I went out and stepped on the main power cord. Total blackout to the telescope. Huh... After an hour I got all on and running again (reinstalling couple of drivers etc...)

There was no more time for all three bands anymore, so H-alpha was now my goal.

After 7 x 1200s (20 min.) exposure they all looked good.

BUT BUT... when I examined them more closely and extracted red pixels from RAW-images

(thats how it works with one shot clor camera), I notised DEW, all but firs image was contaminated by dew.

There is a heater for my filter drawer to prevent dewing and cord from the power unit

was damaged! I soldered it back together but there was not enough night left for anything.

I shot flat frames just to be sure, and went to sleep for two hours before work.

Image here is a one twenty minutes exposure!

Camera, QHY8

Filter, Baader 7nm H-alpha

Optics, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8

Exposure, 1 X 1200s + flats and bias

Guiding, LX200 GPS 12" + PHD-guiding and Lodestar

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

NGC7000 as a Stereo Pair image

Parallel vision Image Pair - -

Cross Vision Image Pair

Images are stereo vision image pairs.

They tell something about "true" nature of this object.

This is not a accurate presentation of the real 3D dimensions,

but gives an idea about real nature of three dimensional object

floating in three dimensional space.

If you need istructions, please, look at the menu right side of the page.

Monday, September 15, 2008

My first ever narrowband color image!

This is a very modest example of three colur narrowband image. But I place it here, since it's my first one. At 11.09. I mainly shoot H-alpha, but before clouds rolled in I managed to capture 4 x 900s O-III and only single shot of S-II, 900s. I will shoot more O-III and S-III when ever weather allows me to do so. In this image the "Hubble paletete" is used where S-II = Red, H-alpha = Green and O-III = Blue

NOTE

This image is taken by using QHY8 cooled 6.1mb color camera.

Its not an ideal tool for narrowband imaging.

Each color channel is shooted trough separate filter, this means,

that only 1/4 pixels are used for H-alpha and S-II.

O-III goes mainly to the Green and Blue

pixels of the Bayer matrix array, so about 3/4 of the pixels are used in this case.

How ever, very high quality narrowband images has been taken by using color cameras.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

11.09, the opening image of the season

This is a first light for my new equipment, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 manual focus lens. North America and Pelican nebula shooted @ f2.8 with Baader 7nm H-alpha filter. I will shoot later S-II and O-III channels to this target (those two filters are new as well) to create a false color narrowband image. Even full open, this lens is very sharp and large diameter (112mm) combined to a fast optics (f2.8) collects photons fast. Exposure time to this relatively deep image was only 5 x 900s = 1h and 15min. This fast lens has a very narrow critical focus zone, about 17microns. (17/1000mm !) I updated my homemade focusing system for this lens to use it with FocusMax software. Camera: QHY8 (Red pixels only) Guiding: Lodestar guider and PHD-guiding with LX200 GPS 12" Exposures: 5 x 900s with Baader 7nm H-alpha filter Lens: Tokina AT-x 300mm @ f2.8

- NO STARS

Here is a same image but all stars are removed. This way more details are visible in nebula area

and total amount of nebulosity is revealed.

New equipmets and some development work.

New focusing system for the Tokina 300mm lens.

System is based on temperature compensating TCF-s focuser and

it's very accurate.

I printed an angular scale and glued it to telescope ring.

The ring is supporting the front end of the heavy lens and same time works

as an indicator to a camera angle.

New flat "box" with EL-sheet.

Last winter I had lots of problems with bad flats.

I managed to buy one A2 size sheet of electro luminescent material.

(Here is the link: http://www.posterpoweruk.co.uk/page5.htm )

It works as a perfectly uniform light source and delivers perfect astronomical flats.

I used unexpencive, light weight, plastic frames to protect the light source.

(Not the one with real glas, it's too heavy for the purpose)

As seen in the image, I used two rubber bands with hooks to attach the panel.

In action

Angular scale for the AO-system

This is a simple solution to easy up guidestar selection with SXV-AO active optics sytem.

When OAG (Off Axis Guider) is used, the selection of the guidestar is very important.

Now it's relatively easy to put whole imaging system to an angle readed from

star chart.

The scale is printed to a sticker material and can be seen in upper image.

New Lens for astro imaging

Tokina AT-X 300 f2.8 is a big and heavy lens.

Diameter of the main lens is 112mm.

Optical quality is very good. At f2.8 stars are absolute pinpoints to very corner of the

imaging area of my APS size camera.

STAR TEST IMAGES, LENS FULL OPEN @ f2.8:

Here is five images from cornes and the center of the image.

Image is just stacked (5 x 900s) and stretched, no other image processing methods are used.

As seen in the images, there is no visible optical flaws!

Some brighter stars may have some distortion, but it's cauced by guiding and polar alignment errors.

This is a single 900s H-alpha filtered, flat and bias calibrated frame.

Red pixels only, hence 1/4 size from original frame.

Mildly stretched under CCDStack software due the 8bit format, no other prcessing.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Comparison of Flame Nebula, with and without stars

This is an example of star removal technique.

Two images of the same target is presented here with and

without stars.

In starless image, the nebulosity is much more visible and some

forms can be seen only in this image.

This can be usefull technique to reweal very faint nebulosity hidden

in overwhelming starfields.

Click for large image.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Sh2-240 Reprocessed

This was really hard to catch and process.

Somehow better now, I think.

The Sh2-240 (Simeis 147) is a very faint supernova remaint in Taurus. The image is in false color to show hydrogen alpha emission.Original BW H-alpha image at the bottom

IMAGING DETAILS

-Optics: Canon FD 200mm f2.8 lens with full aperature - Camera: QHY8 - Platform and guiding: LX200 GPS 12" with QHY5 guider and PHD-guiding - Exposures: 10 x 3600s + 4 x 2700s + 3 x 900s H-alpha + Flats and Bias frames, no darks exposure time so far 13h 45min. - Filter: Baader 7nm H-alp + IDAS LP for RGB

H-alpha

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Veil Nebula, Western part (reprocessed)

Veil Nebula is a supernova remnant with large angular diameter.

Located about 1400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus.

This is a reprocessed version from Autumn 2007.

ED80 + QHY8, guiding LX200+QHY5, UHC-filter 4h+flats+bias.

Eastern part of the Nebula can be seen here:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjk4l1Bvb3Z2H-Lcu6YYy14Ap1INkD2gyaqpU1x_EGH6V9H0O5qHM42VMuewH3B3aEhXrrPavyOyYxbS9qOXgOR4ecfONOnZQY1L4tKDwoPlJHZsOmfBEuG28bB1WBOCtdbfLP-S8jGqXn/s1600-h/Sum+ngc6995+Deconvolved++scaled.jpg

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Who need Stars?

This is a just a test. Large gas clouds are located usually in dense star fields and bright stars are dominating the image, even in narrowband images. Sometimes it's difficult to see actual target from stars. In this test I removed stars from images by using several PS filters, like Minimum, Dust & Scratches and some other star reducing methods. - I think, in this way the actual targets and they forms are more visible.

Klick thumbnail for the large image.

"Bubble Nebula"

"Elephants Trunk"

The core of the "Heart Nebula"

"Andromeda Galaxy"

IC1936

"North America Nebula"

"Flaming Star Nebula"

Part of the IC1848 "Soul Nebula"

Sh2-240

"California Nebula"

"Rose Nebula"

"Hart and Soul"

Wwil Nebula Western part

Weil Nebula Eastern part

Friday, July 4, 2008

More repocessed material

M82 with H-alpha light to show massive outburst of hydrogen gas

from galaxy core.

Details in original post.

IC1848 (Part of the Soul nebula) in H-alpha light + RGB data trough UHC-s filter.

Details in original post.

M106, details in original post.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

California Nebula Reprocessed

This version is combined from two images of the same target.Images are taken with different optical configurations. First was taken with SW 80ED refractor and second with Canon EF 200mm f2.8 camera lens. CCDstack software was used to combine those two images and here is the result.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Reprocessed material from winter 2007-08

Here in northern Finland we have now a mandatory pause for astro imaging doe the high latitude.

Now is good time to reorganize image archives and improve processing skils. Few new images was found from my HD, like material for M45 image. I just place images here with they name. Imaging details can be found from original posts.

All the images are taken with QHY8 camera trough various optical conficurations.

Note! Some fo the images are in high resolution.

Klick for the large image.