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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.

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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Butterfly Nebula, apparent scale in the sky, a horizontal edition




I have shot many targets with several focal lengths. 
Due that, I will publish some images as an image sets, with different field of view and detail levels.
The fractal nature of our universe stands out nicely by this way and it will make the orientation more easy.

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


The "Butterfly Nebula"
In constellation Cygnus

NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a gray circle in all of the images.
Images are 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.


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.

NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a scale.

A vertical version of the series above:


Images used in the series above

First image is a three panel mosaic of the "Cygnus Trio"
Second one is two panels from a mosaic.
Third is a one panel
fourth is a zoomed crob from the above image.


The mosaic wide field was shot with a Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens with a QHY8 astro camera and a Baader narrowband filter set

All images in this page have been part of an older mosaic, the "Cygnus Trio"
It was my very first APOD (Astronomy Picture Of  Day) published  by NASA.
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2008/11/apod.html

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The "Pelican Nebula", apparent scale in a sky, second edition




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

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

Pelican Nebula

In constellation Cygnus


Click for a large images

HST-palette, (HST= Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a scale.

The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC5070 and IC5067) is an Hydrogen emission region associated with the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The nebula resembles a pelican in shape, hence the name. The Pelican Nebula is , close to Deneb, and divided from its brighter, larger neighbor, the North America Nebula, by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. Distance is about 1800 light years

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.
NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a scale.

Two images are used for the series, first is a wide field shot with a Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens. 
Second image, at the bottom, is shot with a Meade LX200 GPS 12" reduced under 2000mm. 
Baader narrowband filter set was used with both images, wide field was shot with a QHY8 and closeup with QHY9 cooled astronomical cameras.

Original images with technical details

Thursday, August 4, 2011

NGC7000, the "North America Nebula", a super zoom in and the scale in a sky



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

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


NGC 7000, the "North America Nebula", new version
In constellation Cygnus

Click for the large image.
NGC 7000 in HST-palette from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.
NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a gray circle in all of the images.

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.
NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a scale.


This is a second, more monitor friendly, version of the NGC7000 scale study.
Older, vertical, version can be found here:

Two images are used for the series, first is a wide field shot with a Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 camera lens.Second image, at the bottom, is shot with a Meade LX200 GPS 12" reduced under 2000mm.Baader narrowband filter set was used with both images, wide field was shot with a QHY8 and closeup with QHY9 cooled astronomical cameras.Original images with technical details

The "Heart Nebula", IC 1805, reprocessed



Since my processing technique gets better and the time of year doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.

Wide field shot of IC1805 with the "Soull Nebula", IC1848

HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

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.


IC 1805, Sharpless 190 (Sh2-190) in Cassiopeia
Ra 02h 32m 36s Dec +61° 29′ 2″

HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

The "Heart Nebula", IC1805 locates about 7500 light years away in constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glow of ionized elements in a gas cloud and some darker dust lanes.
In a very center of the nebula, lays Melotte 15, it contains few very bright stars, nearly 50 times mass of our Sun, and many dim ones. The solar wind, a radiation pressure, from massive stars makes the gas twist to a various shapes.

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.

The "Heart of the Heart, Melotte 15




HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)
from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.





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.


The scale in a sky, a zoom in series




NOTE. The size of the full Moon (0,5 degrees) is marked as a gray circle in all of the images.

Images used in the series above from top to bottom

A wide field image from 2008. with a Canon FD 200mm f2.8 camera lens and a QHY8, a cooled astronomical camera with a H-alpha and UHC-s filters. Total exposure time ~2,5h

A wide field image of the area, covering about 5 degrees, ~300', of the sky. (Ten full Moons side by side)
IC 1805, the "Heart Nebula", locates at upper Right and IC 1848 can be seen at lower Left. Image is shot with a Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera lens and a QHY9, a cooled astronomical camera.
Baader narrowband filter set, total exposure time was ~1,5 hours (A very fast lens was used!).

A medium wide field shot with a Sky Watcher 80ED f7.5 telescope and QHY8 astronomical camera + UHC-s filter. Total exposure time ~3,5h
Last image was shot with a Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope @ f6,5 and a QHY8, a cooled astronomical camera with a H-alpha and UHC-s filters. Total exposure time ~7h.




Technical details

Images above are reprocessed from my older material. Original images used can be seen here:
and here:

I have used some material from my wider field images for colors and some dimmer details.