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Monday, October 6, 2014

A new imaging setup starts to build up.



At beginning of the last Spring season my old imaging setup blew up

During a mandatory Summer pause I have been building a new imaging set up little by little. It starts to be ready mechanically, I need to wait for a couple of clear nights to be able to finalize the setup procedure. 

Without a help from couple of great companies this could be a mission impossible for me.



I have got the most needed help from the beloved neighbour country, Sweden! The Astro Sweden is a largish company specialized to astronomical equipments. They have support my work by equipments and technical knowhow.


Starlight Xpress CCD

I have been using many years some very clever products from the UK based company, Starlight Xpress .
I now have a new Active Optics unit from them, it supports full frame CCD cameras. With the AO-unit I'm using an OAG with the ultra sensitive guider, Lodestar X2. I used to have a smaller version of the AO-unit and Lodestar guider for many years. They really turn any poorly tracking mount to a extremely stable imaging platform. Best of all, the AO-unit works with any third party imaging camera, like the Apogee in my case.


New Setup
click for a large image


Light path

The Active Optics Unit from Starlight Xpress CCD  is attached to a large custom made adapter ring at right.

List of new equipments
  • Mount, 10-micron 1000
  • Optics, Celestron Edge HD 1100
  • Camera, Apogee U16 D09 with KAF16803 chip, 4096x4096 9 microns pixels, 36,8x36,8mm 
  • Filter Wheel, Apogee, seven square slots 50x50mm 
  • Focuser, FeatherTouch with MicroTouch control unit 
  • Heater, Dew Buster 
  • Active Optics Unit, SXV AO LF from Starlight Xpress + OAG 
  • Guider, an ultra sensitive Lodestar X2, also from Starlight Xpress 
  • Focal Reducer, Celestron reducer 0.7 for Edge 1100 (Not yet arrived) 
  • Finder, Telrad 
  • Filters, Astrodon, H-alpha 5nm, O-III 3nm, S-II 3nm. R, G, B and L
I need to wait for a clear weather to be able to finalize the setup. Few things must be done before any imaging is possible. 


To do list

  1. Polar alignment, The axis of the telescope must be exactly parallel to Earth axis 
  2. Collimation, the optical axis must be perfectly concentric 
  3. Fine tune any possible tilt in CCD to have it perfectly perpendicular to light path. 
  4. FocusMax training, ~30 V-curves to have an accurate model of the optical behavior for auto focusing. 
  5. Temperature compensation training, so that temp expansion of the optics can be compensated.



Sunday, September 21, 2014

Winning images in Buzzfeed, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014




The Buzzfeed published The winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 competition by the Royal Observatory Greenwich

www.buzzfeed.com/ryangrimley/royal-observatory-greenwichs-astronomy-photographer-of-the-y#1jlyqrq

My photo of Supernova remnant detail, NGC 1340, winned a shared third price.


Also the Helsingin Sanomat, a finnish national newspaper, published an article about my work

Read the story here (In Finnish)




The list of all winners
I'm in a Deep Space category
Earth and Space

James Woodend (UK) with Aurora over a Glacier Lagoon (Winner and Overall Winner)
Matt James (Australia) with Wind Farm Star Trails (Runner-up)
Patrick Cullis (USA) with Moon Balloon (Highly Commended)
Catalin Beldea (Romania) with Totality from Above the Clouds (Highly Commended)
O Chul Kwon (South Korea) with Venus-Lunar Occultation (Highly Commended)

Deep Space

Bill Snyder (USA) with Horsehead Nebula (IC 434) (Winner)
David Fitz-Henry (Australia) with The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) (Runner-Up)
J.P Metsävainio (Finland) with Veil Nebula Detail (IC 1340) (Highly Commended)
Rogelio Bernal Andreo (USA) with California vs Pleiades (Highly Commended)
Marco Lorenzi (China) with At the Feet of Orion (NGC 1999) – Full Field (Highly Commended)

Our Solar System

Alexandra Hart (UK) with Ripples in a Pond (Winner)
George Tarsoudis (Greece) with Best of the Craters (Runner-Up)
Alexandra Hart (UK) with Solar Nexus (Highly Commended)
Stephen Ramsden (USA) with Calcium K Eruption (Highly Commended)
Tunç Tezel (Turkey) with Diamond and Rubies (Highly Commended)

Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Shishir & Shashank Dholakia (USA, aged 15) with The Horsehead Nebula (IC 434) (Winner)
Emmett Sparling (Canada, aged 15) with New Year over Cypress Mountain (Runner-up)
Olivia Williamson (UK, aged 10) with The Martian Territory (Highly Commended)
Shishir & Shashank Dholakia (USA, aged 15) with The Heart Nebula (IC 1805) (Highly Commended)
Emily Jeremy (UK, aged 12) with Moon Behind the Trees (Highly Commended)

Special Prize: People and Space

Eugen Kamenew (Germany) with Hybrid Solar Eclipse 2 (Winner)
Julie Fletcher (Australia) with Lost Souls (Runner-up)

Special Prize: Sir Patrick Moore prize for Best Newcomer
Chris Murphy (New Zealand) with Coastal Stairways (Winner)

Robotic Scope Image of the Year
Mark Hanson (USA) with NGC 3718 (Winner)



Thursday, September 18, 2014

Astro Anarchy gets published


The winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 competition by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Over 2500 images from 51 countries participated this competition
My image of IC 1340 wins the third place, "Highly Commended", in Deep space category

Daily Mail, news about the winners of Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 competition
My photo is a fourth from the top
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2760574/Shimmering-green-aurora-total-eclipse-exploding-star-Winning-images-Astronomy-Photographer-Year-revealed.html

BBC news about the winners of Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 competition
My photo can be seen at 3:50 position in the movie of the winner images.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29237571

My placed image of the IC 1340


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014



The winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 competition by the Royal Observatory Greenwich has been published today at 19.30 at UK time. 


Over 2500 images from 51 countries participated this competition,
photos from best imagers, best tools and best locations around the world.
My image of IC 1340 wins the shared THIRD PLACE, "Highly Commended", in Deep space category
My placed photo, IC 340, a detail of the Veil Nebula
A supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus

A detail image of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant. Angular size about the same as full Moon.

Technical details and other information about this photo

The original blog post of the IC 1340 from Autumn 2012, with a technical details:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/10/ic-1340-project-finalized.html

This photo was taken with a kind of modest tool, an old Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/09/my-equipment.html

The Meade telescope is not in use anymore:
http://www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2014/01/its-over-i-cant-do-my-loved.html
(An advice! Don't buy any Meade equipments, they are generally very poor quality)
The new imaging system is under construction at the moment.

Location of the detail image in a wide field image

Area of interest marked as a white rectangle

Location of the Veil Nebula in constellation Cygnus

Veil Nebula at most left

All of my astronomical photos can be seen in my portfolio, please, have a look:
http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/