COPYRIGHT, PLEASE NOTE

All the material on this website is copyrighted to J-P Metsavainio, if not otherwise stated. Any content on this website may not be reproduced without the author’s permission.

Have a visit in my portfolio

Sunday, February 27, 2011

LDN 1622 as a Stereo Pair 3D






Parallel vision 3D




Cross vision 3D


Original 2D:



NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

LDN1622, "Boogie Man Nebula", finalized




LDN 1622, a dark nebula in Orion
Ra 05h 55m 11s Dec +02° 00′ 00"




Note. Part of the "Parnad's Loop" visible at background of  LDN 1622.
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.

At the same night, February 25 ,I shot rest of the lights for Sh2-216 at previous post, I was able to finalize O-III and S-II channels for LDN 1622. 
Since this object stays low at here 65N, there is way too little data for a great image. I leave this as it is due the weather. While shooting data, the transparency was bad and that ate out signal very badly. Due that, no HST-palette version this time.

LDN 1622, "Boogie Man Nebula", in Orion is a silhouette of dark nebula at lower half of the image. At background, there is part of the "Parnad's Loop", a large cloud of hydrogen surrounding the nebula complex at Belt and Sword of Orion. LDN 1622 is much closer, than a more famous Orion nebulae, about 500 light years.
This target is very difficult to shoot, since it doesn't rise high, up here 65N. Maximum elevation is only about 27 degrees, at the end of the imaging session, the elevation is only 14 degrees above horizon. I actually had to stop imaging for a while, to avoid a chimney at top of the opposite building. Transparency was poor at the time the data was collected.


Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack. 
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Equipments:
Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 @ f2.8
Platform and guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guider, Lodestar
Image Scale, 3,79 arc seconds/pixel

Exposures:
Baader H-alpha 7nm 12x1200s, binned 1x1
Baader O-III 8,5nm 6x600s, binned 2x2
Baader S-II 8nm 5x600s, binned 2x2


Friday, February 25, 2011

Sh2-216, project finalized




Sh2-216, A planetary Nebula in Perseus, the closest PN to Earth ever discovered
Ra 04h 45m 35s Dec +46° 48′ 30"



Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope) from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen. Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a. Total exposure time 17h

Sharpless 216, Sh2-216 (aka Simeis 288, Marsalkova 44, LBN 742, GN 04.41.3) is a closest known planetary nebula to Earth, about 390 light years, and also one of the oldest known. Due the old age, it's very diffused, dim and large, apparent diameter is about 1,6 degrees. (Full Moon is about 0,5 degrees wide)

In this image, three emission lines are shown. Ionized Hydrohen (H-a) as Green, ionized Sulfur (S-II) as Red and ionized Oxygen (O-III) as Blue. 
S-II region  seems to be more expanded than H-a region, O-II is mainly in upper part of the PN but there is some at Right, at between the hydrogen filaments. H-a seems to be little more expanded at the Left side of the nebula, much more dimmer, than a Right side though.

This must be one of the dimmest targets I ever have shot!
I never have seen this target as a three band emission color image before, as far as I know, this must be the first! Generally there is very few images of this to compare, please, let me know, if you have seen this before as a narrowband three color image.
( Actually I have shot this one before, together with a SNR Sh2-221 back in March 2009) 


Note! There is a size of the full Moon marked, as a Gray circle, at a upper Right corner

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.


All three channels, Ha, S-II & O-III, as an animation

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

As astronomical cameras are usually gray scale CCD's, colors are made by imaging each of them separately, trough a filter. Color channels, usually three of them, are then composed to a final color image. 
In this animation, used channels are shown one by one.


Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack. 
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Equipments:
Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 @ f2.8
Platform and guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guider, Lodestar
Image Scale, 3,79 arc seconds/pixel

Exposures:
Baader H-alpha 7nm 30x1200s, binned 1x1
Baader O-III 8,5nm 17x600s, binned 2x2
Baader S-II 8nm 25x600s, binned 2x2
Total exposure time 17h


I have shot this target before, March 2009, with even wider field.
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/01/two-ways-to-end-life-planetary-nebula.html

At this image Sh2-216 can be seen with its neighbor, Sh2-221, a Supernova remnant. .
QHY9 and Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens. 

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Start of the new projects, Sh2-216 & LDN 1622



This time I'll work with two objects, since LDN 1622 is very low up here, 65 North. I can shoot about two and half hours, before it's too low. My second target for rest of the night is Sharpless 216, an extremely faint planetary nebula. Both projects have been started at 20.02.



LDN 1622, a dark nebula in Orion
Ra 05h 55m 11s Dec +02° 00′ 00"


A gray scale image of H-alpha emission. I'll shoot rest of the emission lines, needed for a color image, later.

LDN 1622, "Boogie Man Nebula", in Orion is a silhouette of dark nebula at lower half of the image. At background, there is part of the "Parnad's Loop", a large cloud of hydrogen surrounding the nebula complex at Belt and Sword of Orion. LDN 1622 is much closer, than a more famous Orion nebulae, about 500 light years.
This target is very difficult to shoot, since it doesn't rise high, up here 65N. Maximum elevation is only about 27 degrees, at the end of the imaging session, the elevation is only 14 degrees above horizon.  I actually had to stop imaging for a while, to avoid a chimney at top of the opposite building. 

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack. 
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Equipments:
Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 @ f2.8
Platform and guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guider, Lodestar
Image Scale, 3,79 arc seconds/pixel

Exposures:
Baader H-alpha 7nm 12x1200s, binned 1x1




Sh2-216, A planetary Nebula in Perseus
Ra 04h 45m 35s Dec +46° 48′ 30"


A gray scale image of H-alpha emission. I'll shoot rest of the emission lines, needed for a color image, later.

Sharpless 216 (aka Simeis 288, Marsalkova 44, LBN 742, GN 04.41.3) is a closest known planetary nebula and also one of the oldest known. Due the old age, it's very diffused, dim and large, apparent diameter is about 1,6 degrees. This must be one of the dimmest targets I ever have shot!

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack. 
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Equipments:
Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 @ f2.8
Platform and guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guider, Lodestar
Image Scale, 3,79 arc seconds/pixel

Exposures:
Baader H-alpha 7nm 30x1200s, binned 1x1 (10h)