The Horsehead and the Flame Nebulas 2/1/11

We were fortunate enough to have another couple of nights of clearing, and I decided to try out an alternative imaging platform I have been working on.  This setup is based on the Vixen ED80SF 80mm Apochromatic scope that I used to use for guiding!  What makes imaging with this scope possible is the new Orion ED80 focal reducer / field flattener that just happens to be a perfect fit for this scope and the DSLR camera I typically use for imaging. 

This image contains both the Horsehead (IC 434) and the Flame Nebulas (NGC 2024).  This is possible because the Vixen ED80SF with focal reducer attached has a much shorter focal length than the Celestron C11 I normally use, giving it a much wider field of view.  (Using the C11, I would only be able to get part of the horsehead nebula in a single frame and not both)

Here are the details:

The Horsehead (IC434) and the Flame Nebulas (NGC 2024)
4 exposures, with 5-minute subs at ISO 1600 taken on January 31, 2011
15 exposures, with 5-minute subs at ISO 1600 taken on February 1, 2010
17 exposures, with 8-minute subs at ISO 1600 taken on February 1, 2010
Imaging scope:  Vixen ED80SF on CGE Mount
Reducers:  Orion ED80 Focal Reducer / Field Flattener
Filters:  Astronomik CLS
Imaging camera:  Canon XS/1000d with heatmirror replace with Baader filter glass
Guide scope:  Modified Celestron 9×50 finder scope
Guide camera:  Orion Starshoot Autoguider
Captured with Nebulosity
Guided with PHD
Stacked in DSS


M33 1/2/11 Remix

During the brief period of clear nights in early January, I took the opportunity to get additional exposures of M33 to improve the image detail.  The following image is the combination of data from 11/04/10, 12/31/10 and 1/3/11.  This represents an amazing total of five hours and 50 minutes of exposure time!  The result is one of the most detailed amateur photos of M33 I have seen.

M33 – Galaxy
27 exposures, with 5-minute subs at ISO 1600 taken on November 4, 2010
30 exposures, with 5-minute subs at ISO 1600 taken on December 31, 2010
29 exposures, with 5-minute subs at ISO 1600 taken on December 2, 2010
Imaging scope:  Celestron C11 on CGE Mount
Reducers:  Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer
Filters:  Astronomik CLS
Imaging camera:  Canon XS/1000d with heatmirror replace with Baader filter glass
Guide scope:  Modified Celestron 9×50 finder scope
Guide camera:  Orion Starshoot Autoguider
Captured with Nebulosity
Guided with PHD
Stacked in DSS

M33 remix


1/6/11 Surprising Flares in Crab Nebula

Science Daily has an interesting article on newly-detected gamma-ray flares being emitted by the Crab Nebula (aka M1).


M1 12/31/10 – 1/1/11

Hello Everyone,

Here in Seattle we have had three months of constant rain. Now that’s a long time since I’ve had the telescope out!

During the rain I did a lot of maintenance work on the CGE mount, including replacing the DEC and RA electrical connectors with DIN plugs – a major project!

As you can see below, the work paid off!  The scope is working great, and the new finder-guider scope is doing a great job.

This particular image of M1 is the result of two nights of imaging combined into a single image.  Here are the specifics:

M1 (aka the “Crab Nebula”) is a supernova remnant
58 exposures, with 5-minute subs at ISO 1600
Imaging scope:  Celestron C11 on CGE Mount
Reducers:  Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer
Filters:  Astronomik CLS
Imaging camera:  Canon XS/1000d with heatmirror replace with Baader filter glass
Guide scope:  Modified Celestron 9×50 finder scope
Guide camera:  Orion Starshoot Autoguider
Captured with Nebulosity
Background Flattened with Fitswork
Stacked in DSS
Guided with PHD

Some facts about M1:
“The Crab Nebula (Messier 1), located in the constellation of Taurus, is a supernova remnant (SNR), the result of a cataclysmic supernova explosion in the year 1054. This explosive death of a star was so bright that it could be seen in the daytime sky for 23 days, and was documented by astronomers throughout the Far East.”


M33 11/04/10 12:32am

We had a brief opening in the clouds last night and I was able to capture about two hours worth of M33 subs.

I thought this came out pretty good considering it was taken from downtown Seattle, Washington.

Enjoy!
M33 – Galaxy
27 exposures, with 5-minute subs at ISO 1600
Imaging scope:  Celestron C11 on CGE Mount
Reducers:  Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer
Filters:  Astronomik CLS
Imaging camera:  Canon XS/1000d with heatmirror replace with Baader filter glass
Guide scope:  Vixen ED80SF
Guide camera:  Orion Starshoot Autoguider
Captured with Nebulosity
Guided with PHD
Stacked in DSS

 


Jupiter 9/22/10 12:47am RRGB

Last night we had a nice break in the clouds, and along with unusually good seeing conditions for the Seattle area I was able to capture the following image of Jupiter.  This is one of our best Jupiter images to date.  Enjoy!

The above image was captured as follows:

30fps

2:30 of captures for each R, G, B

Stacked using Registax

RRGB image composited using WinJUPOS


Jupiter 7/15/10 4:50am RRGB

Here’s our latest Jupiter photo.  We had a great night of seeing and I was able to do a better job collimating the telescope.  More on this one later…


Jupiter 7/9/10 4:39am RRGB

Jupiter is currently rising and getting larger in the sky, and we should expect to see better and better images of Jupiter as the year progresses. In addition to the improvement in the altitude and visible diameter of the planet, I have also made some improvements to the technology we use to capture images.

The biggest new additions are the use of Point Spread Function (PSF) deconvolution in Fitswork, and compositing LRGB images in WinJupos using their cylinder mapping functionality.

PSF deconvolution allows me to reverse some of the imperfections in the imaging train. In this case, the scope was slightly out of collimation. I was able to reverse (some) of the collimation issues by using the shadow of Jupiter’s moon Io as the Point Spread Function for deconvolution.

The use of WinJupos for compositing images is a further enhancement. Using WinJupos I can shoot up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds of video for each R,G,B channel. Using WinJupos, each processed RGB channel is wrapped on a cylinder model of the planet, then rotated into the correct position for composition. This is a major technological advancement, as without the cylinder model I could previously only shoot about 40 seconds for each R,G,B channel. If I had filmed any longer than that, the planet’s rotation would have made it impossible to align the RGB channels into a single final image.

Here are the stats for this image:

Subject: Jupiter with shadow of Io
Date: July 9, 2010 4:39:18am PDT (11:39:18am UTC)
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Telescope: Celestron C11
Mount: Celestron CGE
Camera: Imaging Source DMK21AU04.AS
Filters: Astronimik Type IIc RGB
Imaging Train: C11 == NGFCM == Flip Mirror == Filter Wheel == Powermate 2.5x == DMK21AU04.AS
Recording exposure: 1/45 for all RGB
Recording framerate: 30 FPS
Recorded 4100 frames for each R,G,B
Stacked 800 frames of each R,G,B
PSF deconvolution in Fitswork
RRGB composition in WinJupos
Final processing in Photoshop


M27 6/7/10

Here is a photo of M27 (aka The Dumbbell Nebula) that we took just over a week ago from a dark sky site near Wenachee, Washington.  You can compare this against our earlier attempt at m27 from three years ago by clicking on the “Nebulae” tab and scrolling to the bottom of the page.  Clearly we have made some real improvements in our capture techniques, processing techniques and equipment.

We had some problems with passing clouds, so we weren’t able to integrate a whole lot of frames.  Total integration time was one hour and ten minutes.  Here are the details:

M27 – Planetary Nebula
10 exposures with 6-minute subs at ISO 1600
10 exposures with 1-minute subs at ISO 1600
Imaging scope:  Celestron C11 on CGE Mount
Filters/Reducers:  Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer (no filters used)
Imaging camera:  Canon XS/1000d with heatmirror replace with Baader filter glass
Guide scope:  Vixen ED80SF
Guide camera:  Imaging source DMK21AU04.AS
Captured with Nebulosity
Guided with PHD
Stacked in DSS
Post processed in Fitswork and Photoshop


M101 reworked

After spending so much time learning new imaging processing techniques on M88, I thought I’d apply some of those new techniques to the M101 image data from earlier in the year.

The results are what you see here.

For those who are interested, here is a copy of my image processing notes for Fitswork:

Load fits32rat of m101_9
Pixel Arithmetic -> Logarithmic
Use background flatten -> variable flatten
Blur Filter -> Median Blur 21,1
Color Image to B&W (Luminance)
Blur Filter -> Gaussian Blur Filter (Luminance) 10.4, 100
Pixel Arithmetic -> Multiply Value (Luminance) 0.05
(select color image)
Subtract Image (select gaussian blurred luminace)
Now take original Luminance image
Cutoff at high boundary 0.02
Cutoff at low boundary 0.02
for high boundary image, iter gauss sharp 4, 5, 400
for low boundary image, iter gauss sharp 2.4, 5, 400
Add low and high together
Image Combine -> L+RGB not scaled
Color -> Saturation