Annotating a Quasar in an Astro Image

[Juno16]

Hi Everyone,

I have seen many annotated images by Jim Thomes @jthommes that show quasars with associated information in his annotated images.

That made me very curious and I started exploring the ImageSolver and AnnotateImage scripts in Pixinsight with some of my images just to see if there was a way for me to see if I had captured a quasar.

Quasars are amazing to me because of their extreme brilliance and great distance and that they date back to the big bang.

The PI scripts are very powerful and identify many types of objects, but I am having trouble figuring out what is a quasar and how they are identified. Also, how to insert a label describing the quasar description (distance, magnitude).

I have used the SDSS catalogs in the scripts and they will identify a huge number of objects in an image, but only by SDSS identification and I have not been able to reference that identification to determine information (is this object a quasar, galaxy, star).

I also have found a custom catalog (posted on CN) that identifies 6500 of the brightest quasars. I have used the catalog to find several SDSS's in my images, but I don't know how to look up that identification to find out more information.

I do realize that this might be an obscure topic, but if anyone has looked into this before, please share any success that you have had.

Thanks you!

[STEVE333]

Hi Jim - Why not contact jthommes with a private message? I'm sure he would be glad to share his techniques.

Steve

[Juno16]

Hi Jim - Why not contact jthommes with a private message? I'm sure he would be glad to share his techniques.

Steve

Thanks Steve, I did just that.

[Jockinireland]

Hi Jim,

Can you share anything you get on this because I'd be really interested in how to do this. I did see something about it before but it required running all sorts of clever computer stuff, like python scripts, that were beyond my ability.

[Juno16]

Hi Jim,

Can you share anything you get on this because I'd be really interested in how to do this. I did see something about it before but it required running all sorts of clever computer stuff, like python scripts, that were beyond my ability.

Of course I can!
Quasars are really amazing objects and after seeing Jim’s really nice annotations, it got me very interested.

Pixinsight will annotate SDSS catalogs, and I ”think” that the SDSS’s include quasars, but the sheer number of SDSS’s found in any of my images is overwhelming and not valuable to me.

The SDSS catalog of 6500 of the brightest quasars that I mentioned in the original post that I saw on CN’s site was actually on the PI forum. https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php? ... log.15436/

I downloaded the file and used it in PI as a custom catalog and have found single SDSS objects in several images. That sounds like I’m getting close, but I’m lost on how to translate (cross reference) the SDSS value into quasar information.

I will keep you posted when I hear back from Jim or if I stumble into something.

[Juno16]

Hey again David.

Just thought that I would share one of the SDSS objects that I found in my last Whale/Hockey Stick image from the SDSS catalog of the 6500 brightest quasars that I downloaded from the PI forum. I have yet to figure out how to get information on this object (like distance, quasar designation).

BTW, here is the SDSS file that I download from the PI Forum (posted by a user).

[chris_g]

@jthommes answered that for me a few days back in viewtopic.php?t=24911

Below is what he told me from that post...

Hi Jim

Nice capture, thanks for sharing...

Question, not related to the image itself, what do you use to annotate your images?
Thanks for the comment and question Chris!
For annotations, I use a little bit of everything - PixInsight, Aladin11.0 (desktop) - for Catalogs and Simbad / NED databases, Affinity Photo, and Blood Sweat and Tears. It's mostly manual with a bunch of layers in Affinity Photo. PI does some automation of grid, stars, PGC galaxies, and QSO's

[Jockinireland]

@Juno16 its just so cool that we can image such distant object with our amateur gear. And when you see the distances and think about what that means its a real mind blower.

[Juno16]

@jthommes answered that for me a few days back in viewtopic.php?t=24911

Below is what he told me from that post...

Hi Jim

Nice capture, thanks for sharing...

Question, not related to the image itself, what do you use to annotate your images?
Thanks for the comment and question Chris!
For annotations, I use a little bit of everything - PixInsight, Aladin11.0 (desktop) - for Catalogs and Simbad / NED databases, Affinity Photo, and Blood Sweat and Tears. It's mostly manual with a bunch of layers in Affinity Photo. PI does some automation of grid, stars, PGC galaxies, and QSO's

Thanks Chris,

I missed that post!

Wow, sounds pretty involved with many different software and lots of hard learnings.
If I had seen the post, I would have probably just stopped where I am.
I do feel that there is a reasonable chance that the SDSS captured in the image that I posted might just be a quasar because it came from the 6500 brightest quasar list, but finding out more information on that object is where I’m stuck.

Thanks for filling me in!

[Juno16]

@Jockinireland

It is absolutely a mind blower!

Reading the note from Chris has me wondering how much that I want to pursue this though.

If the "sdss_dr14q_brightest" custom catalog is indeed a list of the brightest quasars, then if I could find a database to cross reference the SDSS value to actual quasar names (well, like 3C 273 in Virgo) and distances, I would be very happy.

The quasar that I mentioned above (3C 273) is the brightest one known at an estimated luminosity of 4 trillion times that of our sun, whaaaat!

I just found this on the site https://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dvb/sd ... right.html.

Table header

J124210.34 (The SDSS that I found in the Whale/Hockey stick image.

The image on the left does point out the same spot as where the object is located in my image. Now, I have to interpret the header!


NOTE: this is the only one of five SDSS's that have located on this table. So ????

[chris_g]

When I saw what he did to annotate his images, I was flabbergasted. I was hoping for a simple solution. It might be time for me to start thinking about adding PixInsight to my processing. If it's annotations are done with a script, that is something I can look at and perhaps add additional sources. Don't know enough about PixInsight yet if it can be enhanced with user scripts or not in that fashion. At least that was my thought process at the time when I saw what Jim goes through, lol! A major undertaking to say the least!

@Jockinireland

It is absolutely a mind blower!

Reading the note from Chris has me wondering how much that I want to pursue this though.

If the "sdss_dr14q_brightest" custom catalog is indeed a list of the brightest quasars, then if I could find a database to cross reference the SDSS value to actual quasar names (well, like 3C 273 in Virgo) and distances, I would be very happy.

The quasar that I mentioned above (3C 273) is the brightest one known at an estimated luminosity of 4 trillion times that of our sun, whaaaat!

I just found this on the site https://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dvb/sd ... right.html.

Table header


Capture.PNG


J124210.34 (The SDSS that I found in the Whale/Hockey stick image.


Capture1.PNG


The image on the left does point out the same spot as where the object is located in my image. Now, I have to interpret the header!


NOTE: this is the only one of five SDSS's that have located on this table. So ????

[Juno16]

When I saw what he did to annotate his images, I was flabbergasted. I was hoping for a simple solution. It might be time for me to start thinking about adding PixInsight to my processing. If it's annotations are done with a script, that is something I can look at and perhaps add additional sources. Don't know enough about PixInsight yet if it can be enhanced with user scripts or not in that fashion. At least that was my thought process at the time when I saw what Jim goes through, lol! A major undertaking to say the least!

Hi Chris,

Yes, it looks like an endeavor!

Basic annotating in PI is pretty simple. The installed catalogs are much of the objects. Depending on the object (Messier, TYCO, NGC, PGC) different, but basic labels can be assigned. Custom catalogs can be used too.

Pixinsight is amazing software. I started my life-long learning process about 15 months ago and I am blown away at the power of the application. I learn something new almost every time that I use it.

Below is the same image attached earlier with some basic annotations in PI.

[chris_g]

When I saw what he did to annotate his images, I was flabbergasted. I was hoping for a simple solution. It might be time for me to start thinking about adding PixInsight to my processing. If it's annotations are done with a script, that is something I can look at and perhaps add additional sources. Don't know enough about PixInsight yet if it can be enhanced with user scripts or not in that fashion. At least that was my thought process at the time when I saw what Jim goes through, lol! A major undertaking to say the least!

Hi Chris,

Yes, it looks like an endeavor!

Basic annotating in PI is pretty simple. The installed catalogs are much of the objects. Depending on the object (Messier, TYCO, NGC, PGC) different, but basic labels can be assigned. Custom catalogs can be used too.

Pixinsight is amazing software. I started my life-long learning process about 15 months ago and I am blown away at the power of the application. I learn something new almost every time that I use it.

Below is the same image attached earlier with some basic annotations in PI.


NGC_6431_Whale_and_Hockey_Stick_Final_Annotated2.jpg

That's a big reason for me to start checking it out, once I've paid down the SCT a little bit that just showed up today that is!

[dcrowson]

To specifically answer your question, quasars will be easy to annotate using PI. You want to use the TypeCat script - https://skypixels.at/pixinsight_scripts.html. Solve your image, go to Utils - TypeCat, select QSO / Quasars and it will create a custom catalog with all of them in your image using Simbad.

Dan

[Juno16]

@dcrowson Thanks Dan. Great information!

Already had the script (installed when I installed Game).

Had some initial success with a previously solved image, but when I launched the script with a newly solved image, PI returns an I/O error. I’ll get to the bottom of it when I get more time.

Thanks a lot Dan!