Astronomy picture of the day

[Buckeye_Nut]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060512.html

Woah.....This picture was just taken 3 days ago as the comet was passing in front of the ring nebula.

 

[Sheep]

Do you have any pictures of uranus?

SheepStar

 

[gellor]

Do you have any pictures of uranus?

SheepStar

Professor: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end
that stupid joke once and for all.
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Professor: Urectum.

 

[Sheep]

Professor: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end
that stupid joke once and for all.
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Professor: Urectum.

ROFL.

I was thinking about that when I wrote it! Chicklet for you!

SheepStar

 

[Audioholics]

You know they touch up and colorize those pictures, right? Still cool, though.

 

[gellor]

You know they touch up and colorize those pictures, right? Still cool, though.

Maybe...but typical coloration consists of taking multiple images...that's about it. Using filters, they take images filtered so that only red light comes through, then blue, green, etc. Then they "stack" the images using other software which determines which areas saw which colors. Run it through an unsharp mask or other filter in photoshop, and voila, you have a pretty astronomy picture. (simplified explanation for a really complex topic)

A bit more detail here:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/mars_colors.html

Note: This is how its done with digital photography. With film cameras, you can actually get pictures of that type.

 

[gellor]

ROFL.

I was thinking about that when I wrote it! Chicklet for you!

SheepStar

Hey, its one of my favorite shows...I couldn't resist.

 

[brian32672]

You know they touch up and colorize those pictures, right? Still cool, though.

Hmmmmm, are you calling NASA a bunch of liars???

 

[Audioholics]

Hmmmmm, are you calling NASA a bunch of liars???

Haha, not really. But anyone who is interested on the "before and after" can read this article:

http://hubblesite.org/sci.d.tech/behind_the_pictures/meaning_of_color/index.shtml

The Hubble telescope photos are all black and white via filters. The colors are created by recombining the filtered exposures and also by adding simulated color to make them more interesting and bring out detail. They don't represent actual color, but a cool recombination to make them more appealing and give them detail and life... It's pretty cool, actually - just not necessarily accurate (they may use red, green, and blue wavelengths for separation, or choose specific wavelengths, or infrared spectrums).

 

[Bryguy]

About 10 to 15 yrs ago pictures like this were done on film and hypered film. They also showed the same type of color saturation. This was extremely tedious work since you had to make sure your guide scope kept a guide star completely centered. Pictures like this would take hours upon hours of guiding. Basically, you were a buffet for mosquitoes or frostbite. Some of your top astrophotographers were Tony and Daphne Hallas, Sue and Allan French and Roland Christen (of the famed Astro Physics telescopes - expect to sit on a waiting list for about 5 to 7 years for one of his scopes).

The invention of the ccd camera (example is SBIG) has cut the time down from all night to several minutes to a couple of hours depending on what you are shooting. Then download it into your computer and photo shop it a little bit.

Bryguy