Astronomical Image Processing

This web site chronicles my experiences with creating tri-color images using the ESA's Photoshop plugin FITS Liberator which allows one to open FITS files in Photoshop. In a nutshell, the process is as follows: retrieve images taken using at least  two different filters from an astronomical image database such as the National Virtual Observatory, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey or the Hubble Space Telescope. The FITS images are then opened into and adjusted with FITS Liberator, then Photoshop. Once all of the images have been opened in Photoshop, they are colorized and combined. The resulting tri-color image can resemble true color, as in the galaxy M51 immediatly below, or false color, as in the images of Saturn found further down the page.

I will continue to add images, processing notes and resources to this web site as I continue to learn more about this process.

09/03/05 Image Details
As you can see below, each of the original images had to be stitched together before combining them. After stitching them together using Photoshop, I used the handy action of colorization created by the FITS Liberator folks, then adjusted the image to my liking. The V filter image was colorized blue, the R filter image green, and the IR filter image red.

IR position 1	IR position 2
R position 1	R position 2
V position 1	V position 2

Image 1 Central Wave (Å):        3344=Blue      4088=Green     6199=Red	Image 2 Central Wave (Å):        4088=Blue      6199=Green     9545=Red
Image 3 Central Wave (Å):    2599=Blue    3344=Green    4088=Yellow    9545=Red	Image 4 This is a composite image of the planet taken from image 2 and the rings taken from image 3, to result in the color that most are accustomed to for Saturn.

09/04/05 Image Notes:
As you can see, I tried a variety of different filter and color combinations when combing the images. Note that none are 'true color' images.

More....