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

webbtelescope.org

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

#141
post #96

Unfortunately the NASA stream online was a disaster. Choppy video and it seemed like nobody had prepared anything. Also 720p in 2022... Don't get me wrong, the images are amazing, but when small startups like Rocket Lab can have uninterrupted streams all the way to the orbit, but NASA stream from a studio looks more amateurish than your average 13-year-old Fortnite player on Twitch, it leaves a pretty bad impression.

the classic "hacker news landing page critique" applied to nasa, love it

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

#142
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Existential dread pro-tip: The Wikipedia page on "Ultimate fate of the universe" is a fantastic way to compell the question of why anything ultimately matters. Coming up with personal answers to this is the ultimate character resolve exercise!

Nothing matters. You live for a while and then you die, but it sure can be a cool trip getting there!

You think nothing matters? How can you be so sure?

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

#143
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A GIF comparing both Hubble and JWST https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif

I made this page (posted in another thread yesterday) because I was rather underwhelmed by the .gif. I think the page shows in much better detail the difference between the telescopes' capabilities. https://blog.wolfd.me/hubble-jwst/ (If you're on mobile, you should be able to zoom in and still use the slider)

damn, this is really awesome!!

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

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between 'actual science' and 'some touched up version of objects in our universe' is smaller than you might think: no matter how good your eyes, if there was no frequency shift involved you would not be able to perceive the image, other than as an array of numbers. To facilitate your consumption of the data it has to be frequency shifted and the easiest way to do this is to map the IR intensity to a ra…

Thanks, but how is the sausage made then? Guess, that’s my main question. I get that the aquired data needs to be transformed in a way so we get an image that depicts a reality we can visually process. I honestly thought there’s some tools in Nasa’s imaging group that, based on scientific rules, pumps out an image that is correct - seeing Photoshop in use left me wonder… I get that the investment needs to be “sold” t…

I don't think there's a scientific definition of "correct" for these sorts of images. How would you even define correctness?

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

#145
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…

May anyone please ELI5 how to interpret the WASP-96 water spectrum graph above?

Elements absorb light at certain frequencies. Given a spectral analysis of the light that passes through the atmosphere and another of the light that doesn't pass through the atmosphere, you can take the difference and see what frequencies were absorbed by the atmosphere. This tells you what elements make up the atmosphere. The H2O sections in the graph are the light frequencies that are absorbed by water molecules ("amount of light blocked" on the Y axis), indicating that the atmosphere contains water.

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy

Much more about this particular graph here: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-...

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

#146

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?

Can it even open FITS?

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

#147
post #133

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…

amateur astronomer here. ( https://www.instagram.com/mead_observatory/ ) 1. photoshop is really good at composing different (spectral) layers together. There is alternatives to this like pixinight that are more geared toward deep sky astronomy work but I'm sure it's easier to hire people that can just take a Photoshop class. there are many layers/masks involved for different filters. the filters accept or reject cert…

Thanks for 3. Without the explanation it really did come off as doctoring data to be more artistic.

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

#149

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 would have expected ImageJ has plugins better suited to work on science

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

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between 'actual science' and 'some touched up version of objects in our universe' is smaller than you might think: no matter how good your eyes, if there was no frequency shift involved you would not be able to perceive the image, other than as an array of numbers. To facilitate your consumption of the data it has to be frequency shifted and the easiest way to do this is to map the IR intensity to a ra…

Thanks, but how is the sausage made then? Guess, that’s my main question. I get that the aquired data needs to be transformed in a way so we get an image that depicts a reality we can visually process. I honestly thought there’s some tools in Nasa’s imaging group that, based on scientific rules, pumps out an image that is correct - seeing Photoshop in use left me wonder… I get that the investment needs to be “sold” t…

No, there's none of that. These pictures aren't being used for any kind of science. They're 100% PR pieces, made to look pretty - which is fine!
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