Hubble’s hidden treasures

[NickRose2006]

I'm surprised I have not seen anyone make a thread about this. ESA/Hubble is asking for the public's help in finding photos from the Hubble archive that have not been seen by the public's eyes. There are two contest that end on May 31st. The first one is where you just edit a photo that has already been processed and the second one is where you go through the raw data and process the image yourself. I have gone for the challenge of the raw data.

Here is the website of the contest: Hubble's Hidden Treasures 2012 | ESA/Hubble

Flickr: Hubble's Hidden Treasures ? Image Processing

NGC1326-Hubble Treasure by Nick R2006, on Flickr

[NickK]

So do you have to get out with a EF panel to take those flats?

[Quatermass]

Thats a very cool link thanks for sharing, processing Hubble images yourself that is brilliant.

[garethmob]

i might give it ago but no windows yet :9 hopefully PS works on my g5 havent used it for over a year lol

thanks for sharing

[Tom OD]

Good find Nick, and cool galaxy, if everyone has the same data its a good test of our abilities on processing.

Tom

[terrym2002uk]

What a great idea!

[Slim]

Hope I'm not being dumb here, although there is a very good chance, I've searched for a number of targets and downloaded a number of fits files but just seem to get completely unusable data. Any idea where I might be going wrong?

[SamAndrew]

This looks great, i'll have to play with this when i get home

@ Slim, I haven't looked at any files yet, but I see you can narrow the search down by choosing which camera you want data from, is it possible you've picked non visual files ?

a quote here from the website

The advanced search option is useful to restrict the search to specific instruments (cameras) on Hubble. We recommend narrowing your search to give only results from ACS, WFC3 and WFPC2 – Hubble’s general purpose cameras.

[NickRose2006]

Hope I'm not being dumb here, although there is a very good chance, I've searched for a number of targets and downloaded a number of fits files but just seem to get completely unusable data. Any idea where I might be going wrong?

Here is a link that will help out with how to process the photo: Step-by-step guide to making your own images | ESA/Hubble

Also when you do a search, click the image tab so you can see what the data looks like. When you see images you like you can click them to highlight them and then go to the inventory tab and then click only, so it brings up only those files and then you can add them to your cart.

[Rattler]

Yeah I saw this last week. I must give it a go.

[Slim]

Here is a link that will help out with how to process the photo: Step-by-step guide to making your own images | ESA/Hubble

Also when you do a search, click the image tab so you can see what the data looks like. When you see images you like you can click them to highlight them and then go to the inventory tab and then click only, so it brings up only those files and then you can add them to your cart.

Thanks for that. Completely missed the FITS liberator bit

[nmoushon]

I noticed on your flicker page that you used 4 different files to make you image. Was wondering how do you tell which files to use and what are the different files exactly? i.e. I know you used a R&G&B file but how did you know which files where the respective colors?

[NickRose2006]

If you look at the end of each file that I have in the description you'll see f439, f555, f814, f658. The lowest number will be your Blue channel the middle will be the Green channel and the highest will be the Red channel. With NGC1326, the reason I put the f658 in as also a red channel was because I noticed that filter really only showed the star forming area, so I thought it would highlight that part of the galaxy. That's why when you look at the star forming area you'll see it pop with red color.

[nmoushon]

Ok f439,555,814 is RGB and the f658 is another one of hubbles filters, that's much clearer thank you. Did you know exactly what filter it was when you chose it for the star forming areas or did you just look through them all and find that one by chance and thought it would add nicely?

[NickRose2006]

I was just going through the images and so that one and thought it would fit in nicely, which I think it does.

[nmoushon]

Ok thanks for the help.

Also are RGB always those numbers or do they have a range they are in? I've looked at a couple different ones and the numbers definitely vary so I'm guessing the latter. Some also only have only two sets of numbers so what channel do they belong to and what would I do about the third that is missing? Sorry I'm new to the RGB type processing as I'm still using a SLR that does all that work for me. Haven't made the switch to CCD yet.

[NickRose2006]

Yes the numbers vary as you have seen. The lowest is Blue, middle is Green, and highest is Red. As with the ones that just have 2 sets, the way you get the green channel is by combining the 2 sets together as a green layer. I'm also new to the RGB processing so I'm learning as I go.

I'm sure there are others that can help that know more about it then I do.

[nmoushon]

Well you definitely been a great help. Thanks a bunch. Looks like I'll have something to keep be busy tonight after work

Btw how would you merge the R&B to get G exactly?

[NickRose2006]

You would just open both in photoshop and then take one and layer it in with the other and flatten the image and save it as the Green filter.

[nmoushon]

oh...lol I though it would be more complicated than that. Thanks again.

[joshb_3d]

In liberator near the top you usually get a drop down with Image 1 Plane 1, Image 2 Plane 1, etc. The images other than 1 look like calibration files but I'm not sure how to leverage these correctly. Anyone else looking at these calibration files?

- Thanks in advance -