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Thursday, June 6, 2013

Pelican Nebula zoom in series and the scale in a sky



I have shot many targets with several focal lengths. Due to that, I will publish some of my material as image sets, with a different field of view and level of details. The fractal nature of our universe stands out nicely in this way and it will make the orientation more easy.

Many times, it's difficult to understand the image scale of astronomical images.
Therefore I have added a "Moon circle" in the images to show the angular scale in the sky. The full Moon has an angular size of ~30 arc minutes, that's equal to ~0,5 degrees.


Cygnus zoom in series, apparent scale of the Peilcan Nebula
Be sure to click for a full size image!

A zoom in series to the Pelican Nebula.
Note. a circle, size of the full moon, as a scale.
A largish image, 7.5MB and 1356x5487 pixels


Orientation in the constellation Cygnus


The North America and Pelican nebulae can be seen at upper left corner.


Images used in this zoom in series
Technical details behind the links

  1. Part of the large, 18-panels, mosaic of the Cygnus, imaged with a Canon 200mm f1.8 lens, QHY9 astronomical camera and the Baader narrowband filters: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1072219942/h1a60116f
  2. North America and the Pelican Nebulae, imaged with a Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 lens,  QHY9 astronomical camera and the Baader narrowband filters: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1072219942/h2c811434#h2c811434
  3. Part of the large, 18-panels, mosaic of the Cygnus, imaged with a Canon 200mm f1.8 lens, QHY9 astronomical camera and the Baader narrowband filters: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1072219942/h3f92be2d#h3f92be2d
  4. A closeup of the Pelican Nebula, imaged with the Meade LX200 GPS 12" f5 telescope,  QHY9 astronomical camera and the Baader narrowband filters: http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p1072219942/h35663238#h35663238















Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Filaments of the Veil nebula, starless view


One of my starless astronomical image experiences, the Pickering's Triangle in Cygnus supernova remnant.
This area of the nebula is filled with colorful filaments, ionized sulfur and hydrogen are seen as green, golden hues, ionized oxygen can be seen as blue.


The Pickering's Triangle with a suppressed stars
A detail of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant

The complexity of filaments stands out nicely in this starless image.


An original image with the stars

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

Original blog post about this image, with the technical details, can be seen here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/11/pickerings-triangle-project-finalized.html



Orientation in the Veil Nebula SNR

Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle, the apparent size of the Moon can be seen at lower right corner.


INFO


Pickering's Triangle, Simeis 3-188, is a small part of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus.
Veil Nebula is a cloud of ionized gas and dust, leftovers from an exploded star. The star went off some 5000-8000 years ago at distance of about 1470 light years. This, relatively faint target, is difficult to image due to the large angular diameter, about three degrees, and a dense star field.



Exposure and processing 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
15 x 1200s exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 5h
9 x 1200s exposures for the O-III, emission of ionized Oxygen = 3h
4x1200s exposures for the S-II, emission of ionized Sulfur = 1h 20min.





Sunday, May 19, 2013

Never lose your sense of wonder!



Just a little reminder...





The Bubble Nebula

I shot this image of the Bubble Nebula back in 2009, large images and more info in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/03/bubble-nebula-reprocessed.html








Thursday, May 16, 2013

An experimental starless version of the Wizard nebula,




I like to make starless versions of my astronomical images now and then. They'll show the actual nebula better and have a kind of mystique feel. 
Human brains has a tendency to form some quasi logical shapes out of cloud of random dots, like stars in this case. Without stars, the shapes in a gas cloud stands out much better. 


A starless Sharpless 142 (Sh2-142), the Wizard Nebula
In constellation Cepheus


Image with a suppressed stars, click for a large image.
Original image with a technical details can be seen in THIS blog post.


Image with the stars





Info

NGC 7380 is a catalog number of the open star cluster inside Wizard nebula, SH2-142.
Nebula locates in constellation Cepheus, about 7000 light years from my home. 



Technical details


Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations at 50% weight.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 6,5Hz
Image Scale, 0,75 arcseconds/pixel
Exposures H-alpha 15x1200s, binned 1x1
S-II 1x1200s, binned 4x4
O-III 1x1200s, binned 4x4
Beside data here, a color information from an older wide field image is used.