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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.
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)

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



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