Wednesday 25 February 2009

A new Star

WOW AMAZING

I saw the birth of a new star last night.
Things went supernova from nebulous region in the constellation of the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital at 22.58 UT. It was subsequently named by it co discovers Katie & Malcolm to the name of Daisy Grace Dent. As new born stars go she was a bit of a lightweight at 6lb 7oz but already showing signs of a cavernous black hole at her centre. A rocket trip returned to her to starbase at dawn this morning after a final countdown of nearly 20 hours. All crew members are well and doing fine.

Saturday 14 February 2009

M42 & NGC1977 Over Processed

This image is the same as the one below but i used some very aggressive processing using images plus 2.5. I have done this to see what info I could tease out from the stacked master image. Personally I like to keep the images clean with realistic dark backgrounds so if anything I am happy to under process to get a more pleasing result. I am certainly no expert in imaging but I enjoy the challenge of having a go.



So what did I do.

well within images plus there is a video file with a set of typical preset adjustments for a M42 found in the file named "deep sky image set" you can copy and paste these settings upon your own image , the processes include Pixel Maths, Digital Development, Brightness & levels, Saturation & brightness.

I wouldnt be happy with this as a final result but what amazes me is that the information is there. I love the way the running man leaps from his own nebula and M42,s wings completely encirle and join hands. No colour adjustments were made & I love to see the true colours shine through.
Please your comments are welcomed what do you think

Thursday 12 February 2009

Rosette Nebula

Object: Rosette Nebula NGC 2244, NGC 2237
Type: HII Emission Nebula
Constellation: Monoceros
Date: 3rd february 09
Equipment: William Optics Megrez 90 Canon EOS 40D
Subframes: 27 x 30 second exposures unguided at ISO800 & 10 x 30 second darks. No filters were used. Stacked by Deep Sky Stacker.
Processed: In Images Plus 2.0 with a DDP stretch.

Notes: Image taken under moonlit conditions.
NGC 2237 is generally the name given to the whole of the nebulous region & NGC 2244 is the cluster thats believed to be responsible for the stellar winds from a group of O and B stars are exerting pressure on interstellar clouds that cause compression, this initiate's star formation in the nebula. This star formation is currently still ongoing.

Back In Time: At a distance of 5200 light years. It was a time when Unification of the first ancient Egyptian states marked the beginning of the Ancient Egyptian civilization.





Wednesday 4 February 2009

M42 The Great Orion Nebula


What an amazing night transparency excelent apart from the 62% moon in the way.

I thought I would have another go at M42. I wasnt happy with the previous posted image, well that was really just a test to get the PHD to work ( still no luck ). Apologies for slightly elongated stars.

Object: M42
Type: Reflection & Emission Nebula 1270 Light Years Distant.
Constellation: Orion
Date: 24th January 09
Equipment: William Optics Megrez 90 Canon EOS 40D
Subframes: 30 x 30 second exposures unguided at ISO800 and
Processed: 10 x 30 sec darks were captured & subtracted. Stacked using Deep Sky Stacker,
Processed in Images Plus 2.0 with a DDP stretch. 10 Iterations on a adaptive Richardson Lucy deconvolution filter.
Notes: This cropped Image was taken under a 62% illuminated moon.

Any exposure over 30 seconds was badly washed with moonlight so I kept it to that and the result is excellent. I also used Deep Sky Stacker programme for the calibration and stacking it was very easy to use and a great deal quicker than manual registration of each image. I used med fine quality JPEG as I have a small problem when I ask it to use RAW even with an empty card the camera says it is full and will not take an image.

Leo Triplet



Object: M65, M66, NGC3628
Type: Galaxy Cluster
Constellation: Leo
Date: 3rd february 09
Equipment: William Optics Megrez 90 Canon EOS 40D
Subframes: 98 x 30 second exposures unguided at ISO800 & 19 x 30 second darks .
Processed: In Images Plus 2.0 with a DDP stretch. 6 Iterations on a adaptive Richardson Lucy deconvolution filter.
Notes: This cropped Image was taken under a 62% illumination from the moon hovering by the pliedies. I will play with the processing a little more I am sure I can tease a little more from the structure from the galaxies.
Back In Time: Light from these 3 started its journey 35 million years or so ago give or take an eon or so.
Occasional killer asteroids could have spawned temporary rings of debris around Earth and played a major role in changing the world climate, according to scientists. Resembling the rocky halos that encircle Saturn, one such terrestrial ring might have chilled the globe considerably about 35 million years ago.
The geologic record indicates that Earth endured a brutal cold spell at the time, possibly sparked by a debris ring that persisted from 100,000 to several million years, the New Mexico researchers said. (courtesy of newsfinder)

California Nebula

  NGC1499 The California Nebula. Discovered in 1889 The California Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation of Perseus, currently v...