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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.

Original versions of images bellow can be seen in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/sharpless-112-sh2-112_5.html

Sharpless 112
An emission nebula in constellation Cygnus

Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by ionized elements. 


Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and Blue=Oxygen.


The additional data is taken from this wide field image of the same object


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

Image is in visual colors, combined from the narrowband data.


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.




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


Sharpless 162, NGC 7635, the "Bubble Nebula"
Ra 23h 20m 48s Dec +61° 12′ 06″

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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.


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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







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.

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

IC 443 in visual colors


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


A study about the apparent scale in the sky
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... 




Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Time and Space Puzzle



I made this just for a fun...




INFO

Image in the puzzle above shows my image of the Bubble nebula in constellation Cassiopeia.


More info about this nebula in this blog post:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2011/03/bubble-nebula-reprocessed.html