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Showing posts with label Images with Active Optics (SXV-AO). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Images with Active Optics (SXV-AO). Show all posts

Friday, October 31, 2014

The Cygnus Wall


A fast image from the last night, the Cygnus Wall, a part of the much large North america Nebula, NGC 7000. This is a relatively bright formation, three hours of H-alpha light and half an hour of O-III was captured for this photo. S-II channel is borrowed from an older wide field image, since the clouds rolled in before I was able to shoot it.


Cygnus Wall
Click for a large image

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen.

Detail from the image above



INFO
Source: NASA APOD

The North America nebula on the sky can do what the North America continent on Earth cannot -- form stars. Specifically, in analogy to the Earth-confined continent, the bright part that appears as Central America and Mexico is actually a hot bed of gas, dust, and newly formed stars known as the Cygnus Wall. The above image shows the star forming wall lit and eroded by bright young stars, and partly hidden by the dark dust they have created. The part of the North America nebula (NGC 7000) shown spans about 15 light years and lies about 1,500 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).

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 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f7 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5nm H-aplha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III

Exposure times
H-alpha 6 x 1200s = 3h
O-III 3 x 600s = 30min. 
S-II is borrowed from my older wide field image

A single un cropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame






Tuesday, January 7, 2014

NGC 6992, Eastern Veil, an ionized Oxygen only


Eastern Veil was my opening image of the Autumn season 2013.
I just made a new image out of it. This photo shows only an emission of the ionized Oxygen.


NGC 6992
A portion of the Eastern Veil in Oxygen light

An emission of ionized Oxygen in Eastern Veil Nebula.


An original image shows three emission lines, H-alpha, Sulfur II and Oxygen III

Link to an original blog post with the technical details HERE.


Three emission lines as an animation






Sunday, October 20, 2013

A rarely imaged object, the Sharpless106, Sh2-106


Sh2-106, The Hourglass nebula, an emission nebula in Cygnus
Ra 20h 27m Dec +37° 22′

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE


A closeup




INFO

There are not too many images around about this little fellow.
Sharpless 106, the Hourglass Nebula, locates in constellation Cygnus approximately at distance of 2000 light years. This is kind of a small object, an apparent size is about four arc minutes (Moon is about 30 arc minutes.) There is a young star at the center of the nebula, S106IR. The solar vind, a radiation pressure, from the young star is responsible for the gas cloud's hourglass like shape. 

I think, there is a hint of the outer shock front visible in my image. It locates symmetrically at both side of the central nebula .

Image in mapped colors

Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE


Technical details

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
A light, 33 iterations, deconvolution added at 50% weight 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
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
15 x 1200s exposures for H-alpha emission
3x1200s exposures for the O-III
3x1200 exposures for the S-II
Total 7h of exposures


Friday, October 18, 2013

The second image of the Autumn season 2013. Sharpless 132




Sh2-132, an emission nebula in Cepheus
Ra 22h 19m 20s Dec +56° 06′ 00"

Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

A starless version

An experimental starless image to show the actual nebula better.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

INFO

Sharpless 132 is a very faint emission nebula, it locates at the border of Cepheus and Lacerta. Distance is about 10.000 light years. This image covers about 210' x 160', that's about 3,5 x 2,7 degrees. Resolution is 3,79 arc seconds/pixel.
In this final version, a strong O-III area is visible as a Blue color in both color palettes. There is some S-II in the area too but it's weak.

Image in visual colors

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

A wide filed image of the Sh2-132
A blogpost about this older image of mine can be found HERE.

Image is shot with a Tokina AT-X camera lens,  QHY9 , a cooled astronomical camera, and the Baader narrowband filters. O-III and S-II channels from this image are used for new images colors.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

Technical details

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
A light, 33 iterations, deconvolution added at 50% weight 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
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
12 x 1200s exposures for H-alpha emission = 4h.
O-III and S-II channels are from an older wide field image.





Tuesday, October 15, 2013

First light for the Autumn Season 2013, NGC 6992



In this year it took some time to have a real first light for the season due to the weather up here 65N.
Image is exposed during several nights, 13.09 - 14.10,  between the speeding clouds.


NGC 6992
A portion of the Eastern Veil in constellation Cygnus.

Image is in mapped colors, from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

INFO

NGC 6992, the Eastern Veil, is part of the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus at distance of about 1470 light years. This is one of the more luminous areas in this SNR. 
The shock front formed by the material ejected from giant explosion, the super nova, can be seen in this image.

Image in visual spectrum

Image is in Natural color palette from the emission of ionized elements,
R=Hydrogen + Sulfur, G=Oxygen and B=Oxygen + Hydrogen.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

A starless version

An experimetal starless image to show the actual nebula better.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

Orientation

Location in Veil Nebula supernova remnant is marked with a white rectangle.
Buy a photographic print from HERE

An animated image

This animation shows the difference between emission lines. The target is shot three times for a RGB-color image.

Technical details

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
A light, 33 iterations, deconvolution added at 50% weight 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
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
12 x 1200s exposures for H-alpha emission = 4h
18x 1200s exposures for O-III, emission of ionized Oxygen = 6h
12 x 1200s exposures for S-II, emission of ionized Sulfur = 4h
Total exposure time 14h.


Ps.

A collection of Veil Nebula details from the past
A blog post about this poster and links to an original images can be found HERE

Buy a photographic print from HERE




Thursday, April 4, 2013

A new poster out of the images from a season past



The Winter season 2012-2013 starts to be over up here 65N. We'll loose dark nights for about six months, due to high latitude. Past Winter was kind of cloudy but since my observatory locates next to my home, I was able to use nearly every clear moment during the Winter. 

Image count is relatively high since many of the images are just finalized in this season and there have been material from past years to continue to work with.  I have published 24 new images ( Plus color and other versions of them.)

Beside traditional astronomical images, I have done some experimental work by adding a volumetric information to my images. My 3D-work gets widely published by several medias, like Wired magazineSmithsonian Institute magazinePetaPixel and many many others.

At end of the year 2012, one of my experimental 3D-images was selected as one of The Best Astronomical Images of 2012 by the astronomer Phil Plait. 


Collection of my images from the Winter season 2012-13
Be sure to click for a full scale image, 1920x2800 pixels and 4.5 MB




A HD 1080p movie from images above in 
images are in chronological order

Photos of instruments, used for images above, can be seen 

All of my astronomical art can be found from my 


My telescope is not a pretty boy but it works


Please, click HERE to see my gears and info about them.



Examples of my experimental 3d-work 
Movies and GIF-animations



3D-images in different formats
parallel and cross vision free view, anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D










Wednesday, April 3, 2013

It's over... no more astroimaging for me... sigh



The Winter season 2012-2013 starts to be over up here 65N. We'll loose dark nights for about six months, due to high latitude. Past Winter was kind of cloudy but since my observatory locates next to my home, I was able to use nearly every clear moment during the Winter. 

Image count is relatively high since many of the images are just finalized in this season and there have been material from past years to continue to work with.  I have published 24 new images ( Plus color and other versions of them.)

Beside traditional astronomical images, I have done some experimental work by adding a volumetric information to my images. My 3D-work gets widely published by several medias, like Wired magazine, Smithsonian Institute magazine, PetaPixel and many many others.

At end of the year 2012, one of my experimental 3D-images was selected as one of The Best Astronomical Images of 2012 by the astronomer Phil Plait. 


Collection of my images from the Winter season 2012-13 as a poster
Be sure to click for a full size image!

Please note, a largish image file ~6 MB, images are labeled.


A movie from the images
Images are in chronological order, duration 5 min.


To see this movie in full HD1080p resolution in Youtube, click HERE
Select a wanted HD resolution under a You Tube by clicking the gear symbol at lower right corner. Watch the movie in full screen for a best experience.


A slide show
Images are in chronological order

 Please, click HERE to see the folder of images in my portfolio.


Info about equipment used for all of my images 

Please, click HERE to see my gears and info about them.


All my images can be found from my portfolio
With technical details and other information

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/



Examples of my experimental 3d-work 
Movies and GIF-animations

http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/search/label/animations



3D-images in different formats
parallel and cross vision free view, anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D

http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/f359296072





Friday, March 29, 2013

Owl nebula, Messier 97




This seems to be my last image for the winter season 2013.


M97, the Owl nebula
in constellation Ursa Major

Click for a large image.
Image is in visual spectrum, red light is emitted by an ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Some of the colors, like stars, are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.


INFO

In my image the outer shell of ionized Oxygen, O-III, can be seen around the round nebula. It's very rarely imaged, I found just couple of images, taken with large 2-3 meter telescopes, showing it. I did use my "Tone Mapping" technique to dig out this very faint signal.

The Owl Nebula, M97, is located about 2,600 light-years away toward the bottom of the Big Dipper's bowl. M97, from Messier's list of objects, its round shape along with the placement of two large, dark "eyes" do suggest the face of a staring owl. One of the fainter objects in Messier's catalog, the Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula, a dying sun-like star as it runs out of nuclear fuel. In fact, the Owl Nebula offers an example of the fate of our Sun as it runs out of fuel in another 5 billion years. The nebula spans over 2 light-years.


A drawing of Owl Nebula from 1848

I wanted to place this sympathetic image here, It's a drawing of Owl nebula by William Parson back from 1848.


O-III channel processing
to show the outer shell structure

Click to see large image
  1. Calibrated and stretched stack, 8h of exposures.
  2. Stars are removed by using several iterations of "dust and scratches" filter under PhotoShop.
  3. Levels are set.
  4. First iteration of curves.
  5. Second iteration of curves, second set of "dust and scratches" filtering to remove background unevenness, mild gaussian blur and some median filtering (5x5) to reduce noise level
  6. Finally image number 5 is combined with second image from top to have both, core details and the outer halo.

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 4Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel

Exposures from three different nights, 16., 26. and 29.03 2013

H-alpha 18x1200s, binned 1x1 = 6h 
O-III  24x1200s, binned 1x1 = 8h
+
Color exposures with QHY8 single shot color camera and Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 lens.
36x600s exposures with UHCs-filter = 6h





Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Jones-Emberson 1, the project continues


The Jones-Emberson 1, project continues. I shot five more hours of O-III (light emitted by an ionized Oxygen.) to this planetray nebula. The area of O-III seems to be more extended, than most of the images around are showing.  

At previous mail, I wrote about a possible outer halo in this PN. I have not collected enough information to confirm it, even though I shot five more hours with my fast imaging system, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 lens, UHCs-filter and QHY8 camera. It's very much possible, that there is nothing after all but we'll see at end of the next season, spring 2014. 

Generally the new O-III data gives a softer look to this extremely dim planetary  nebula. The total exposure time is now ~36h, with wide field color data. 


Jones-Emberson 1
Ra 07h 57m 51.628s   Dec +53° 25′ 16.96
PK 164+31.1 a planetary nebula in Lynx

Buy a photographic print from HERE

A cropped full size image, this is a large object as a planetary nebua.
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Some of the colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.


A wider field

Buy a photographic print from HERE

INFO

There are many background galaxies in this image but they are not showing very well, due to narrowband imaging method. Galaxies and stars are broadband targets and they dim down much, when narrowband filters are used. I'll like to be able to shoot this from a dark location with a LRGB-method.

 largish and very dim, planetary nebula.PK 164+31.1, sometimes known as a "Jones-Emberson 1" has an angular diameter of 6', 67" x 6', 67" and it locates in constellation Lynx. Distance from my home town Oulu, Finland, is about 1600 light years.
The tiny Blue central star is a white dwarf, the intense ultraviolet light emitted by this star makes elements in a ring glow. Ionized Hydrogen emits red light and the ionized Oxygen blue one. 

Why the name "PK 164+31.1"?
PK comes from the names of Czechoslovakian astronomers Perek and Kouhutec. 1967 they created an extensive catalog of all of the known planetary nebulae in  1964. The number indicates the position in the sky. The alternative name "Jones-Emberson 1" is after its discoveries.

Five hours of new O-III data
Shot at 25.03. 2013

This image shows an example about my processing technique. I'm using a special technique of mine to dig out a very weak signal. The upper image shows a stacked, calibrated and heavily stretched 5h exposure of an O-III light.  The image below shows the same data after star removing procedure . The signal from the ionized oxygen is then stretched much more and smoothed out by using a median filtering, 5x5, and some gaussian blur.


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 5Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel


Exposures

H-alpha 21x1200s, binned 1x1 = 8h (A new set from the spring 2013.)
(Older sets from Spring 2010)
H-alpha 32x1200s, binned 2x2 and 7x1200s, binned 3x3 = 13h 
O-III 2x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h
O-III 15x1200s, binned 1x1, = 5h (A new set from the spring 2013.)
S-II 3x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h 20min.
+
Color exposures with QHY8 single shot color camera, spring 2013
48x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 8h



A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission

A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and nonlineary stretched to visible. 
Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.

Color data

This is a image used for colors only, it doesn't need to be high resolution, nor pretty, since there are very litle details in other than H-a channel.

A UHCs filtered data from Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens, total 8h.





Sunday, March 24, 2013

Jones-Emberson 1, a Palnetary Nebula



I have shot some new h-alpha data for this extremely dim planetary nebula. Total exposure time is now around 20h for the light emitted by an ionized Hydrogen alone. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a by using the Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera optics, UHC-sfilter and a cooled single shot color astrocamera, QHY8. Exposure time for the color information is around 8h. Total exposure time used is ~23h.

NOTE!

An unknown outer shell structure might be visible in my color data! It can be an artifact though and much more exposures are needed to show it well enough to be sure. Explanation at the end of this post.


Jones-Emberson 1
Ra 07h 57m 51.628s   Dec +53° 25′ 16.96
PK 164+31.1 a planetary nebula in Lynx

A cropped full size image, this is a large object as a planetary nebua.
Image is in visual spectrum and dominated by the red light emitted by ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. Blueish hues are from ionized Oxygen, O-III. Colors are shot simultaneously with H-a emission by using QHY8 color camera, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens and Baader UHCs-filter.
NOTE. An updated image, 5h of O-III data added 25.03.


A wider field

NOTE. An updated image, 5h of O-III data added 25.03.

INFO

There are many background galaxies in this image but they are not showing very well, due to narrowband imaging method. Galaxies and stars are broadband targets and they dim down much, when narrowband filters are used. I'll like to be able to shoot this from a dark location with a LRGB-method.

 largish and very dim, planetary nebula.PK 164+31.1, sometimes known as a "Jones-Emberson 1" has an angular diameter of 6', 67" x 6', 67" and it locates in constellation Lynx. Distance from my home town Oulu, Finland, is about 1600 light years.
The tiny Blue central star is a white dwarf, the intense ultraviolet light emitted by this star makes elements in a ring glow. Ionized Hydrogen emits red light and the ionized Oxygen blue one. 

Why the name "PK 164+31.1"?
PK comes from the names of Czechoslovakian astronomers Perek and Kouhutec. 1967 they created an extensive catalog of all of the known planetary nebulae in  1964. The number indicates the position in the sky. The alternative name "Jones-Emberson 1" is after its discoveries.

Jones-Emberson 1, H-alpha emission alone

Image shows this planetary nebula in light emitted by an ionized Hydrogen, H-alpha. In color image, there is also light from an ionized Oxygen, O-III. (H-a emits red light and O-III green/blue light.)

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 5Hz
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel


Exposures

H-alpha 21x1200s, binned 1x1 = 8h (A new set from spring 2013)
(Older sets from Spring 2010)
H-alpha 32x1200s, binned 2x2 and 7x1200s, binned 3x3 = 13h 
O-III 2x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h
S-II 3x600s, binned 4x4 and 1x1200s, binned 4x4 = 1h 20min.
+
Color exposures with QHY8 single shot color camera, spring 2013
48x600s exposures with UHC-sfilter = 8h



A single unprocessed 1200 second frame of H-a emission

A single 20 min. frame, just calibrated and nonlineary stretched to visible. 
Imaged with the QHY9 camera, Baader 7nm H-alpha filter and Meade LX200 12" telescope.

Color data

This is a image used for colors only, it doesn't need to be high resolution, nor pretty, since there are very litle details in other than H-a channel.

A UHCs filtered data from Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera lens, total 8h.


Possible finding, an outer shell?

After removing all the stars from the color image above, I was able to stretch the individual color channels to an extreme, without blowing the stars. It is possible, that there is an unknown outer shell in this nebula!
It's possible, that this is just an artifact and much more exposures are needed to show it well enough to be sure. This season starts to be over up here 65N but I'll continue to study this at next spring season, 2014.

A very strongly stretched starless color image of Jones-Emberson 1, 8h exposure, shows a hint of an outer shell structure at mostly Right side at the image above. Outer shell seems to be a pure O-III emission and that's kind of typical to a many planetray nebulae. But as mentioned, this is speculation until I have more data. 


Saturday, March 23, 2013

Melotte 15 panorama, reprocessed



One of my favorite images from this winter season is a two frame mosaic of the Melotte 15 area in IC 1805, the Heart Nebula. There wasn't actually anything wrong in my first version but I wanted to reprocess the data to see, if I'm able to give somehow a more fresh outlook to the image, specially the color scheme.


The heart of the Heart
Melotte 15 in IC 1805

Melotte 15 in mapped colors, be sure to click for a large image!


closeups





INFO

The open cluster centered in this image is known as Melotte 15 . Melotte 15 is embedded within a central portion of the much larger glowing nebula identified as IC 1805. 

An interesting structure, at the center of the image, is a giant area of hydrogen gas that is caused to glow by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the massive stars of the Melotte 15 star cluster.
Dust and gas clouds are twisted by the pressure of the violent radiation, the solar wind.
This formation is estimated to be 7,500 light years away from Earth, North is up.



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
45 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 15h
Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field image of mine.


Some of my images showing the IC 1805 area

Previous version of the image above:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/melotte-15-in-ic-1805-project-finalized.html


A collection of IC 1805 details:

An other panoramic mosaic of the IC 1805 area:

A closeup of IC 1805:

A two frame mosaic in visual colors:

A wide field shot of the IC 1805 and IC 1848:


A study about an apparent scale in the sky:

An other detail image of IC 1805: