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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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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Astro anarchy gets published




NGC 6888 in HST-palette at National Geographic's "Daily Dozen"

May - Week 4



My image of the "crescent Nebula", NGC6888, was selected in a "Daily Dozen" of National Geographic Magazine's webpage.

This was the selected image. Original post with details can be found HERE.

You can vote my image to be printed in National Geographic magazine.
Please, use this link to give a vote:





Saturday, May 29, 2010

M16 experiment, narrow band with a Broad band luminance.





HST-palette colors with a Broad band luminance. RGB-Stars.
Red=S-II, Green=H-a and Blue=O-III


Natural color narrow band composition with a Broad band luminance. RGB-Stars.
Red=70%Ha+30%S-II, Green=O-III and Blue=70%O-III+30%H-alpha.

In this experimental image, I have tested the method to use a clear filter luminance with a narrow band color. This is (only?*) scientifically correct method to use a luminance image with a narrow band colors, since a broad band luminance contains all the wave lengths used for color information.

I don't usually like to mix colors from a different imaging methods, like pure RGB and narrow band. In this case I have used RGB, real color, stars with an emission line image.

Some astro imagers tend to use H-alpha channel as a luminance, due the higher details and better S/N than any other channel has. Even though the visual appearance might look better, other channels, O-III and S-II, has no information in H-a luminance and all details in there are lost!

(*I have to point out, I use H-a  luminance with a many NB images but H-a is boosted with all the information in O-III and S-II channels used. I call this method "Tone Mapping". Step by step instructions can be found here: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2009/04/neaic.html )


The original narrow band image, with technical details, of  M16 can be found here: 
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2010/05/m16-eagle-nebula-in-hst-palette.html




Technical details
Imaged with a Northern Galactic members remote telescope in Australia,  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT5xcPgdl42zGREyCwydFYagJMAi08LFbJBf0G3CN2kmyirDNtFbaj3xJ_bmA93X2t1nxBQX4uTWobfRYnYLT3TiqNZVZMbdW7hVlAVGWRYnTRndCGV9zhHmxvyEAHSz3sVHzVefaXEFg/s1600/NGTelescopeL.jpg



16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
H-alpha 5x1200s, O-III 2x1200s, S-II 2x1200s . Dark and Flat calibrated.
Broad band luminance 15x300s.
RGB-colors Red 2x300s, Green 2x300s and Blue 2x300s.
Raw data is shared with Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.









Friday, May 28, 2010

New target from the Australian Sky, M8





M8, the "Lagoon nebula" in Constellation Sagittarius.

New project, from Northern galactic remote telescope in Australia, has been started.
The Lagoon nebula, M8, in ionized Hydrogen light, H-alpha.

The telescope and technical information:

16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
H-alpha 4x1200s,  Dark and Flat calibrated.
Raw data is shared with Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.


Wednesday, May 26, 2010

M16, reprocessed





M16, the "Eagle nebula"



Close up.

Less compressed images here:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p80640150

I did this one again, since I carried away with processing at previous version!
"Less is more" as usually.
I haven't used to process so good data, than the Northern Galactic members telescope delivers.
-

16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
H-alpha 5x1200s, O-III 2x1200s, S-II 2x1200s . Dark and Flat calibrated.
Raw data is shared with Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Narrow band lines are mixed to a HST-palette (Used generally with Hubble Space Telescope)
Red=S-II, Green=H-alpha and Blue=O-III

-

Original Blog post here, processing  looks little heavy handed:

NGC 4945, Finalized




NGC 4945, edge on spiral Galaxy in constellation Centaurus.

I was able to finalize this version, since I now have all the needed calibration images, Dark, Bias and Flat frames. This beautiful, large, edge on galaxy is overlooked, since there is two showpieces at neighborhood, M83 and the Centaurus A.

NGC 4945, imaged with a Northern Galactic members remote telescope in Australia,

 Technical details




16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
22x300s for the Luminance and 4x300s / RGB-channel . Dark and Flat calibrated.
Raw data is shared by Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Final version of M104, the "Sombrero galaxy"





M104, imaged with a Northern Galactic members remote telescope in Australia,

Final version of the Northern Galaxy members remote telescopes personal first light, Sombrero galaxy, M104.
Now all the sub exposures are Dark- and Flat-frame calibrated.

Close up.

Technical details

16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
25x300s for the Luminance and 4x300s / RGB-channel . Dark and Flat calibrated.
Raw data is shared with Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Monday, May 24, 2010

M20, the "Triffid nebula", Continues







Less compressed version, please, have a look in my Portfolio:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/p5990174/h388dbd45#h388dbd45


M20, imaged with a Northern Galactic members remote telescope in Australia,

Impressive instrumentation and great location in Souther Australia under a dark Sky, makes possible to go deep in very short time! Image above has only 70min. total exposure time, Luminance is 25 min.
I'll shoot more lights for this later.

Technical details

16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
LRGB-image, Luminance=5x300s Red=3x300s, Green=3x300s and Blue=3x300s . Dark and Flat calibrated.
Raw data is shared with Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.


Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

M16, the "eagle nebula" in HST-palette





M16, HST-palette, RGB-stars



Cropped detail from image n HST-palette and with a broad band RGB-stars.


I don't usually like to mix images, made with totally different technique. How ever, it's very common among many astro photographers to mix broad band stars to a narrow band image. 
The reason is, there is no real stars colors in NB imaging and generally stars are heavily suppressed due the very narrow band width used in filters. 
Some times it's a good thing to have little suppressed stars to be able to show the Nebulous better. 


16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
H-alpha 5x1200s, O-III 2x1200s, S-II 2x1200s . Dark and Flat calibrated.
Raw data is shared with Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.










Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.
Narrow band lines are mixed to a HST-palette (Used generally with Hubble Space Telescope)
Red=S-II, Green=H-alpha and Blue=O-III


EDIT. 25.05. 2010
All the pure HST-palette NB images are now updated. Stars are redone by using information from all the NB-channels. By this way, Stars are somehow large but overall feel is more natural, than by using stars from the H-alpha channel alone, as I have done before.
My "Tone mapping" procedure is used to make this image, a tutorial for it can be found here:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2009/04/neaic.html
Since stars doesn't have any relevant color information in HST-palette images, due the broad band nature of Star emission, I have developed a powerful method, Tone Mapping, to process NB images.
Now on I'll add a star information from all the channels, not just from H-a.
I will rewrite the "Tome Mapping" document in near future.


All NB Channels


Channels are "Tonemapped", all the high S/N components = Stars, are removed to build a well balanced color Map.



A Starless "Color Map", build from channels above.





Thursday, May 20, 2010

M 83, the "Southern Pinwheel"








16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. 
LRGB combo.
 Luminance 6x300s, Red 4x300s, Green 3x300s and Blue 3x300s. Dark calibrated, no flats.
Raw data is shared with Petri Kehusmaa and J-P Metsavainio

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.


Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

M16, the "Eagle nebula"









Images are in natural broadband colors, boosted with H-alpha and an O-III.
provides great views to a Southern skies in Australia.
Technical details:

16" RCOS ja Apogee U9000 camera. HA:O-III and LRGB combo.
H-a 5x1200s, O-III 1x1200s, and 15x300s, Red 2x300s, Green 2x300s and Blue 2x300s. Dark calibrated, no flats.

Processing workflow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v4.xxx
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.


Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.


In this version, only RGB and the Luminance data is used, no H-alpha nor O-III.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

M20, the Triffid nebula as a 3D-stereo pair





Parallel vision



Cross vision

Other 3D-formats can be found here:

Original 2D-image:

NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.
Viewing instructions can be found from a Right hand side menu.


M20, the Triffid nebula as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D





You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see this movie right.
Note, if you have a Red and Green/Blue filters, you can try them out! Red goes to Left eye.





Other 3D-formats can be found here:

Original 2D-image:

NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.
Viewing instructions can be found from a Right hand side menu.

NGC 4945 as a stereo pair





Parallel vision


Cross vision


Other 3D-formats can be found here:

Original 2D-image:

NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.
Viewing instructions can be found from a Right hand side menu.

NGC 4945 as an anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D





You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see this movie right.
Note, if you have a Red and Green/Blue filters, you can try them out! Red goes to Left eye.


NOTE
You'll find a complete collection of my astronomical images from my portfolio:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/
All of my 3D-material is behind "Volumetric 3D images", at a middle of the page.



Other 3D-versions





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

Friday, May 14, 2010

M20, the "Triffid nebula"




M20, the "Triffid Nebula" in constellation Sagittarius. Distance about 7600 light years.

Actually this is my firs image of a reflection nebula from a dark location, what a difference!
Image above is only Ten minutes exposure (Luminance channel)
Ten minutes was all I could do due the speeding clouds, I'll continue with this later.
I couldn't believe, that anything can be done from so thin data but here we go, nothing beats great instruments and a dark location!
Ones again, this is a preview image, since I don't have yet all the calibration filesa nd the exposure time is a way too short.

Details:

NGC 4945




NGC 4945 in Centaurus 
Beautiful and relatively large edge-on spiral galaxy.
Distance from Earth, about 12 million light years.

My second light for the Northern Galactic groups members telescope under the Australian dark skies.
This galaxy is not imaged too commonly, due the proximity of famous targets, Centaurus A and M86.

Ones again, this is a preview image, since I don't have yet all the calibration files.

Details:
Camera, Apogee U9000
Exposures, 24x300s for the Luminance and 4x300s for each RGB channel.
Darks, NO Flats.



Tuesday, May 11, 2010

One more anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D Moon







You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see this movie right.
Note, if you have a Red and Green filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.

Please, click movie twice to see in in YouTube



Full Moon

Animation is made by re projecting the 2D-Moon image to a 3D-sphere.
The resulting 3D-model is then animated to a two movies with some parallax difference for Stereo effect.
The Moon is now seen about 90 degrees side from what we normally are seeing from the Earth.

Original 2D-full moon image, used for this animation, can be found here:

More 3D-astronomical targets in different formats can be found here:





Anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D-movies, the Moon




You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see this movie right. Note, if you have a Red and Green filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.

Please, click movie twice to see in in YouTube




Moon surface Flyover




Moon surface Flyover, wider field



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


Monday, May 10, 2010

M 104, the "Sombrero galaxy" as a 3D Stereo pair





Parallel vision

Cross vision

Other 3D-formats can be found here:

Original 2D-image:

NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression.
Viewing instructions can be found from a Right hand side menu.


M104, the "Sombrero galaxy" as an Anaglyph Red/Cyan 3D



You'll need Red/Cyan Eyeglasses to be able to see this image right. Note, if you have a Red and Green filters, you can use them! Red goes to Left eye.
NOTE! This is a personal vision about forms and shapes, based on some known facts and an artistic impression



 Other 3D-versions: