Friday, September 27, 2013
Cygnus Trio
Since the weather dosen's support imaging, I extracted an other individual image out of the large Cygnus mosaic. This image shows the same area, than my first ever APOD image, back from the year 2008.
Cygnus Trio
Butterfly, Crescent and the Tulip Nebula
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Image is shot with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics, QHY9 a cooled astrocam and the Baader narrowband filter set, H-a, S-II and O-III. There are four individual panels, each panel is shot three times with different filter for the color image. Total exposure time is around 20h.
An experimental starless image
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Autumn season 2013 opened finally!
Last night I was able to open up my imaging season. After six months mandatory summer pause, it's great to be back!
As usually, this first light for the season is more like a test shot. I need to re collimate my optical path and fine tune my gears for optimal image quality.
A closeup of the Butterfly Nebula
First light for the Autumn season 2013
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Image in visual spectrum
Orientation
Area of interest is marhed with a white rectangle. More info about this image in HERE.
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 33 % weight
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 12"
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Starlight Express active optics unit, SXV-AO, and lodestar guider.
Image Scale, ~0,75 arcseconds/pixel
H-alpha 7x1200s, Binned 1x1 = 3h 20min.
O-III and S-II channels are from an older wide field image HERE.
A single calibrated 20min. H-alpha light frame
Image is calibrated with darks and a bias corrected flats. No other processing but nonlinear stretching.
A single calibrated 20min. H-alpha light frame
Monday, September 23, 2013
Sharpless objects, 223, 224 and 225 in Auriga, reprocessed
I'm waiting the weather to clear, to be able to open up my Autumn season. While waiting, I have practiced my processing skills, after a long Summer pause.
Sh2-223, 224 and 225
In constellation Auriga, click for a large image.
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Image in visual spectrum
A closeup of the supernova remnant Sh2-224
Info
Sh2-224: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh2-224
Sh2-225: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh2-225
About the new processing
I have used a new technique to dig out a very dim background nebulae. A starless version of 16h H-a exposure is stretched to an extreme and a data in level of background bias is revealed.
To work, images, used with this technique, has to be perfectly calibrated with bisas corrected flats.
The power of this method can be seen easily, if the new image is compared to an older version HERE.
A data hiding near the background level is revealed in this starless image.
This "tone map" is used to boost an extreme dim background nebulae in the final image.
Technical details
Camera, QHY9
Optics, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 @ 1.8
Guiding, QHY5 and PHD-guiding
Imaging platform, LX200 GPS 12"
Exposures
H-alpha, 7x1200s, 13x2400s and an additional
15x1200s imaged with QHY8 and Tokina AT 300mm f2.8
O-III, 5x300s Binned 4x4
S-II. 5x300s. Binned 4x4 .
A single 1200s H-alpha frame
Calibrated, stretched and scaled down, no other processing
This single 20 min. exposure shows how dim this target really is.
There are very few images about this area of sky around.
There are very few images about this area of sky around.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
A supernova remnant Simeis 147 reprocessed
I'm waiting the weather to clear, to be able to open up my Autumn season. While waiting, I have practiced my processing skills, after a long Summer pause.
Simeis 147 (Sh2-240)
In constellation Taurus
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Total exposure time is now 26h. with fast, Canon EF 200mm f1.8, camera optics.
A closeup
Click for a 1:1 scale
A portion of the Simeis 147 shows massive amount of gas filaments.
Image in visual spectrum
An animated image, stars vs. starless
Click for a large image
I made this experimental animation to show better the actual nebula complex.
Many details are hiding under a very dense star field, like a small out burs at four a clock position.
The human brains has a tendency to form false forms and shapes from a random cloud of dots, in this case, stars. By removing all the stars, the real shapes are easier to see.
Info about the object
Simeis 147 (sharpless 240), is a very faint and very large supernova remnant in constellation Taurus at distance of ~3000 light years. It's constantly expanding at speed of 1000 km/second but due the size of it, we can't see any movement in it. This SN spans over 160 light years and the apparent scale in the sky is about three degrees (Moon has an apparent size of 30" = 0,5 degrees). Explosion took place approximately 30.000 years ago and left behind a pulsar (Neutron star). The pulsar has recently identified.
How long it'll takes to this supernova remnant to expand 1% large when the diameter is 160 light years and it expands at speed of 1000km/second.
How long it'll takes to this supernova remnant to expand 1% large when the diameter is 160 light years and it expands at speed of 1000km/second.
Answer is ~480 years.
(1% of diameter 160/100= 16, as kilometers ~151.372.800.000.00, = Y, km,
1000km/second is ~315.360.000.00, = Z, kilometers/year.
So, X x Z = Y and X=Z/Y, X = 480 with given values)
(1% of diameter 160/100= 16, as kilometers ~151.372.800.000.00, = Y, km,
1000km/second is ~315.360.000.00, = Z, kilometers/year.
So, X x Z = Y and X=Z/Y, X = 480 with given values)
This image get selected as a Space Picture of the Week by the National Geographic magazine. You can see the story HERE
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 33 % weight
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Canon EF 200mm camera lens at f1.8
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" and a Lodestar guider
Image Scale, ~5,5 arcseconds/pixel
H-alpha 34x900s, Binned 1x1 = 8,5h
H-alpha 24x1800s, Binned 1x1 = 12h
O-III 60 x 300s, Binned 3x3 = 5h
S-II 6 x 600, Binned 3x3 = 1h
Total exposure time for Hydrogen alpha alone is ~20,5h
Total exposure time is 26,5h
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
A collection of images from a large mosaic of Cygnus
I haven't been able to open up this season yet, since some of my equipment are not yet back from the factory service. (Should be here any day now!) To keep up my processing skills, I have reprocessed my older material.
All images are reprocessed and fine tuned. Images are shot wit a Canon EF 200mm f1.8 monster lens.
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Native size of this image is over 15.000 x 10.000 pixels.
A collection of sub-images from the mosaic above
Please, pay attention to a resolution of images bellow. I have used a new processing technique of mine to keep images sharp during the processing routine.
No artificial sharpening methods are used!
NOTE. a large image, 3000 pixels wide and 4MB.
Original blog post of Cygnus mosaic:
This lens is very sharp from edge to edge at full open.
Some parts of the mosaic are boosted with longer focal length instruments, Tokina AT-X 300mm camera lens and the Meade LX200 12" SCT-telescope. QHY9, a cooled astronomical camera, is used with all instruments. All photos are in narrowband colors, from an emission of ionized elements, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulfur. Baader narrowband filter set is used for the emission line imaging with all the instruments.
Cygnus mosaic, reprocessed
Reprocessed, NOTE. a large image 2300 pixels wide and 4.3MB
A collection of sub-images from the mosaic above
Please, pay attention to a resolution of images bellow. I have used a new processing technique of mine to keep images sharp during the processing routine.
No artificial sharpening methods are used!
CIRRUS OF CYGNUS
CRESCENT NEBULA, NGC 6888
THE TULIP NEBULA, SHARPLESS 101
NORTH AMERICA AND THE PELICAN NEBULAE
NORTH AMERICA AND THE PELICAN NEBULAE
THE BUTTERFLY NEBULA
A Chinese Dragon
The overall shape of the nebula complex looks like a dragon!
A large photographic print at my home
A framed copy of the Cygnus Nebulae, my wife, Anna, as a scale.
Links
A reprocessed mosaic in visual colors:
Tools used for this image:
My portfolio:
Monday, September 16, 2013
An experimental 3D-study of the Heart nebula, IC 1805
I haven't been able to open up this season yet, since some of my equipment are not yet back from the factory service.
This is an experimental test with a 3D-conversion of my astronomical images. Only real elements from my original image are used, there is nothing added but the volumetric information!
NOTE. This is a personal vision about shapes and volumes, based on some scientific data and an artistic impression.
Heart Nebula, IC 1805, as an experimental 3D-model
NOTE. A largish image, about 7.5MB, let it load for few seconds.
My original image of the Nebula is used for the animation
Click for the large image
Image in natural color is taken with the SW 80ED telescope, QHY8 astronomical camera and the Baader UHC-s filter. Exposure time ~5h.
More 3D-experiments can be seen here:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/search/label/animations
3D-experiments in different stereo formats can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/search/label/animations
3D-experiments in different stereo formats can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Cygnus mosaic in natural colors, reprocessed
I haven't been able to open up this season yet, since some of my equipment are not yet back from the factory service. To keep up my processing skills, I reprocessed the great 18-panels mosaic image of Cygnus. Mapped color version was very much OK but I wasn't happy with natural color version.
The 18-panels mosaic of nebulae in constellation Cygnus
Click for a large image. NOTE. A large image, 2300x1500 pixels and ~5MB
Image is in visual spectrum, red light is emitted by an ionized Hydrogen (H-alpha). Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen (O-III). NOTE. An apparent size of the full Moon is marked at lower right corner as a scale
This 18-panels mosaic is hot with Canon EF 200mm F1.8 camera lens, QHY9 cooled astronomical camera and the Baader narrowband filter set. Total exp. time is around 120h. More information with the original blog post HERE. Original image is 15.000 pixels wide and over 300MB.
A detail from the image above to show the image resolution
Click for a large image
Not a bad resolution for a 200mm camera lens!
Friday, September 13, 2013
An experimental 3D-study of North America and the Pelican Nebulae
This is an experimental test with a 3D-conversion of my astronomical images. Only real elements from my original image are used, there is nothing added but the volumetric information!
NOTE. This is a personal vision about shapes and volumes, based on some scientific data and an artistic impression.
North America and the Pelican Nebulae as an experimental 3D-model
NOTE. A largish image, about 7MB, let it load for few seconds.
My original image of the Nebula is used for the animation
Click for the large image
Original blog post about NGC 1499 with technical details
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/11/ngc-7000-north-america-pelican-nebulae.html
More 3D-experiments can be seen here:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/search/label/animations
Monday, September 9, 2013
Sh2-112, processed with an additional data
I'm waiting to start imaging a new material but there are few items in factory service and I'll need to wait them to come back. Mean while I reprocessed my image of Sharpless object 112 in constellation Cygnus.
Originally I had too little exposures to reveal the background nebulous properly. I noticed, that I actually have a very deep exposures for this object but taken with very different image scale. I have shot this area with a Canon EF 200mm f1.8 optics and the background nebulous stands out very nicely there.
I have developed a new method to combine data from very different sources. It's based on signal to noise analysis, a very weak signal doesn't usually has too much details in it. The weak signal from a low resolution source can be used with a high resolution signal and best of both image types will be used in final image.
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/sharpless-112-sh2-112_5.html
Sharpless 112
An emission nebula in constellation Cygnus
The additional data is taken from this wide field image of the same object
Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements.
Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen.
This is a small part of a very large mosaic image of the constellation Cygnus, the mosaic can be seen HERE.
Sh2-112 is located at lower center of the image and the weak background nebulae stand out clearly. Image is shot with a very fast opticla configuration, a Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens at full open, a cooled astronomical camera, the QHY9 and the Baader narrowband filter set. Total exposure time for this image is around 4h.
Sh2-112 in visual spectrum
Technical details:
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
21 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 7h
3 x 1200s exposures for the O-III, emission of ionized Oxygen = 1h
3 x 1200s exposures for the S-II, emission of ionized Sulfur = 1h
Additional exposures for the background nebulae are shot with a very fast opticla configuration, a Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens at full open, a cooled astronomical camera, the QHY9 and the Baader narrowband filter set. Total exposure time for this extra data is around 4h.
Additional exposures for the background nebulae are shot with a very fast opticla configuration, a Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens at full open, a cooled astronomical camera, the QHY9 and the Baader narrowband filter set. Total exposure time for this extra data is around 4h.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Bubble Nebula reprocessed
Since my processing technique gets better and weather doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.
Image is shot with a QHY9 and the Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5, pixel scale 0.65pixels/arc second.
Original versions from October 2009, with technical details:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2009/10/bubble-nebula-finalized.html
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2009/10/bubble-nebula-finalized.html
Sharpless 162, NGC 7635, the "Bubble Nebula"
Ra 23h 20m 48s Dec +61° 12′ 06″
Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Image is in mapped colors from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen & B=Oxygen.Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III & B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.
INFO
This is one of the most interesting looking structures in a sky.
NGC 7635 aka "Bubble Nebula, Sh2-162 or Caldwell11, is a Hydrogen emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. It locates near the open cluster M 52 at distance of about 11.000 light years from the Earth.
The bubble structure is created by a strong stellar wind, a radiation pressure, from massive hot magnitude 8,7 central star, SAO 20575, it can be seen in an image inside of the bubble, off centered at Right.
Bubble is an expanding shock front inside a giant molecular cloud and it has a diameter more than Six light years. The spherical formation is expanding at speed of 6500.000 km/h, due the huge scale and distance we can't see the movement easily. In a century, the bubble in this image will be only about one pixel wider, than now! ( ~1 arc second)
Strong UV-radiation from a central star ionized elements in a gas and makes them glow at typical wavelength to each element. (Hydrogen glows Red light as Sulfur, Oxygen emits Green/Blue light at visible wavelengths)Orientation
A wider field image of the region, Bubble can be seen at ten a clock position as a bright "pearl".
Buy a photographic print from HERE
Gray circle shows the apparent size of the full Moon.
The Bubble Nebula as an experimental 3D-model
This is a looped video, click to start and stop. Original movie is in HD1080p resolution.
More info about the animation in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/02/3d-study-of-bubble-nebula.html
More info about the animation in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/02/3d-study-of-bubble-nebula.html
Thursday, September 5, 2013
IC 443, a supernova remnant reprocessed
There is now added some new data found from my hard drive. Image is now little wider giving a better composition. An older version can be seen here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/02/ic-443-supernova-remnant-as-closeup.html Not a massive difference but image works now somehow better with some extra space at sides.
I have shot several times this supernova remnant in Gemini. In this image, there are three different exposure sets combined, first from the year 2010 and two others from this season. Total exposure time is now around 20h. Latest images for this target are shot at 11.02 this week, 3h of H-alpha emission.
A Gemini SNR, IC 443, the "Jellyfish Nebula"
Ra 06h 17m 13s Dec +22° 31′ 05′′
Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
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
Source Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_443
INFO
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
Source Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_443
A natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements.
R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15% Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.
Older wide field images of the same target
Click for large images
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/07/ic-443-snr-scale-in-sky-zoom-in-series.html
Map of constellation Gemini
Technical details
Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
Exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 20h
Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field image.
A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission
This isn't a bright object...
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