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James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

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Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#101

Watching the livestream i was more than surprised, that color correction actually happens in Photoshop. Also, there seem to be multiple layer-masks involved for specific regions and objects. I get that you can shift and composite color, based on hue, apply filters etc, but: Photoshop? Curious if anyone can explain, that what we see is actual science or some touched up version of objects in our universe. p.s.: What st…

I’m confused.. why would we expect some other image processing software to be better than Photoshop - a software package which has been the top of its class for ~30 years?

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#102
I remember reading something in the lines of: we know this nebula to be composed of gasses X and Y, which have colors A and B. As a layman it was unclear to me if this statement means they are applying a color palette to a monochrome image(s) using some educated guesses or something else.

Is infrared the only (or the most convenient, most useful etc) spectrum visible given the great distance? If we could get close enough, I suppose we would see things in clearer visible light. Without any enhancements, long exposures etc, would they be anywhere as colorful as the nebula images? Would they be visible to us at all, or are the emissions too weak even up close to make any impression to our eyes?

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#103
When I was observing the 2017 total solar eclipse, my attention was interrupted for a few seconds by someone who was driving a car. Their headlights turned on as they kept driving, not stopping for a minute to see something that for a given place on earth happens once every four centuries. The few people dismissing this reminded me of that experience.

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#104
post #64

Direct links -- Stephan's Quintet (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7DB1FHPMJCCY59CQGZC1YJQ.png Southern Ring Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI Images Side by Side): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G79R28V7S4AXDN8NG5QCPGE3.png “Cosmic Cliffs” in the Carina Nebula (NIRCam Image): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7ETPF7DVBJAC42JR5N6EQRH.png Webb's First Deep Field (NIRCam Image): https://stsci-opo.org…

Thanks for the direct links!

> Webb's First Deep Field (NIRCam Image)

Is this image distorted in any way at all? It feels like the galaxies are somehow oriented around a center spot. Not all of them, but enough to give the image a distorted feeling. Probably it's just my mind pattern matching against something that doesn't really exist.

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#105
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is in a) the details and b) the length of time the telescope has to gather light to get the photo. JWST got the photo in hours when Hubble took weeks, and there's easily 10x as many objects in the JWST shot. JWST can thus observe much fainter and much more distant objects - galaxies billions of years old, exoplanets, etc., and it can do more of it .

If they pointed JWST somewhere for weeks instead of hours, would it pick up even more objects, or is it hitting the limit to what exists in that part of space?

You might be able to see some additional fainter objects, but the deep field shot is looking at 13 billion year old galaxies - some of the first in existence. There's not much older you can look at.

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#106

Watching the livestream i was more than surprised, that color correction actually happens in Photoshop. Also, there seem to be multiple layer-masks involved for specific regions and objects. I get that you can shift and composite color, based on hue, apply filters etc, but: Photoshop? Curious if anyone can explain, that what we see is actual science or some touched up version of objects in our universe. p.s.: What st…

I’m confused.. why would we expect some other image processing software to be better than Photoshop - a software package which has been the top of its class for ~30 years?

[deleted]

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#107
post #64

Direct links -- Stephan's Quintet (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7DB1FHPMJCCY59CQGZC1YJQ.png Southern Ring Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI Images Side by Side): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G79R28V7S4AXDN8NG5QCPGE3.png “Cosmic Cliffs” in the Carina Nebula (NIRCam Image): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7ETPF7DVBJAC42JR5N6EQRH.png Webb's First Deep Field (NIRCam Image): https://stsci-opo.org…

Thanks for the direct links! > Webb's First Deep Field (NIRCam Image) Is this image distorted in any way at all? It feels like the galaxies are somehow oriented around a center spot. Not all of them, but enough to give the image a distorted feeling. Probably it's just my mind pattern matching against something that doesn't really exist.

Gravitational lensing. From the description[0]:

Other features include the prominent arcs in this field. The powerful gravitational field of a galaxy cluster can bend the light rays from more distant galaxies behind it, just as a magnifying glass bends and warps images. Stars are also captured with prominent diffraction spikes, as they appear brighter at shorter wavelengths.

[0] https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2...

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#108
post #64

Direct links -- Stephan's Quintet (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7DB1FHPMJCCY59CQGZC1YJQ.png Southern Ring Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI Images Side by Side): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G79R28V7S4AXDN8NG5QCPGE3.png “Cosmic Cliffs” in the Carina Nebula (NIRCam Image): https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7ETPF7DVBJAC42JR5N6EQRH.png Webb's First Deep Field (NIRCam Image): https://stsci-opo.org…

Thanks for posting these links! It was frustrating that the main NASA PR pages linked photos that were 1280x720. I guess that's to protect their bandwidth costs since much of the general public is probably viewing on mobile anyway and higher res would not only be slower but wasted bits.

I just wish NASA had provided a link at the bottom of their low-res image pages to intermediate sized images (~4k) for desktop viewing.

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#109
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://petapixel.com/2022/07/11/comparing-hubble-to-james-w...

Yeah, that's not very good implementation. PetaPixel usually have good content, but using a GIF to compare these two images? Come on! You can see the compression artifacts very easily.

This was also recently posted on reddit: https://johnedchristensen.github.io/WebbCompare/

Re: James Webb first images – complete set of high resolution shots now live

#110

Watching the livestream i was more than surprised, that color correction actually happens in Photoshop. Also, there seem to be multiple layer-masks involved for specific regions and objects. I get that you can shift and composite color, based on hue, apply filters etc, but: Photoshop? Curious if anyone can explain, that what we see is actual science or some touched up version of objects in our universe. p.s.: What st…

Webb's primary camera is infrared, so there is by necessity a choice to be made with how to present the data for humans who can't see in infrared.

I had always assumed they were doing it completely mathematically though. Like collating spectrometry readings to know what elements were present where and figuring out the temperature for blackbody emission or something, or even just linearly transforming the raw data from the spectrum the telescope can receive to the visible spectrum.

Kinda disappointing if it's really just a paint by numbers Photoshop to look nice

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