Mitch Cronin Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 ...or any monitor... As is often the case, today's APOD is gorgeous! http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090707.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Hi Mitch; I used to love these pictures until I became aware that they are usually artificially colored to highlight the detail. Here's a quick google find on the subject; Coloring the Universe "Hubble astronomers make multiple long exposures to draw out these colors. They also employ a different filter for each exposure to block all but a certain color of light. A digital imager records a grayscale image. After adding the color in Photoshop (and also eliminating artifacts generated by piecing the data together) the filtered images are combined." Still beautiful but I now look at them as pieces of graphic art rather the photographs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon The Loon Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Hi Mitch; I used to love these pictures until I became aware that they are usually artificially colored to highlight the detail. Here's a quick google find on the subject; Coloring the Universe "Hubble astronomers make multiple long exposures to draw out these colors. They also employ a different filter for each exposure to block all but a certain color of light. A digital imager records a grayscale image. After adding the color in Photoshop (and also eliminating artifacts generated by piecing the data together) the filtered images are combined." Still beautiful but I now look at them as pieces of graphic art rather the photographs. Sheesh: Talk about raining on someone's parade! C'mon Seeker - the visible spectrum paints a very limited (human) picture of the universe. If NASA wants to exaggerate some of the radiation we can't see (infrared and below; ultra-violet and above wavelengths), than I for one am all for it! Colourize away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Well I sure don't want to be accused of spoiling anybody's fun but there has been some controversy in the astronomy community about colorizing and I spent several years believing that these pictures were true to reality only to find out that I was looking at an artist's work rather than a photographer's work. By all means color away I just think calling it the APOD is a bit misleading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon The Loon Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 OK, I'll buy that, especially since I've been such an opponent of colourized B&W movie classics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 I agree with Rich. Besides, I think the colours in todays apod (link above) are natural? ... and this one is not a Hubble shot The red-glowing gas results from high-energy starlight striking interstellar hydrogen gas. The dark dust filaments that lace M20 were created in the atmospheres of cool giant stars and in the debris from supernovae explosions. Which bright young stars light up the blue reflection nebula is still being investigated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon The Loon Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 To be fair to the astronomers, some of the pictures we get to "see" would not be visible if the alterations did not take place. Many "photos" are recorded using non-optical telescopes that use frequencies beyond the human visual spectrum to create an image of the data within their field of “view”. I think it's wonderful that the colouration techniques are used so that those of us not in the scientific community can "see" and appreciate the incredible spectacle of the universe unfolding before us. Didn't I just say that, if not so eloquently, or colourful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 I think the colours in todays apod (link above) are natural? Now I'm sure they are natural... Here's another one of the same nebula (not copyrighted, not to worry) from 1995, which was taken with a simple 6 inch refracting telescope: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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