Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Whenever I see a picture taken in space, of other planets, distant galaxies, anything...I always wonder about the accuracy...i.e....is this exactly what I would see with my naked eye or is this doctored up and colored...
I know this is a broad question but something I always think about...especially since seeing the recent pics of pluto
In some cases the "doctoring" is to bring forth details that aren't visible to the naked eye. The spectral response of the human eye is limited. You are wise to not view them as all "what a human would see."
Whenever I see a picture taken in space, of other planets, distant galaxies, anything...I always wonder about the accuracy...i.e....is this exactly what I would see with my naked eye or is this doctored up and colored...
I know this is a broad question but something I always think about...especially since seeing the recent pics of pluto
It's a digital representation of what it looks like. I don't think there are graphic designers coloring out sections of actual photographs. Also any blemish on the photographs is viewed as an alien mother-ship coming to invade earth, by the internet community.
In some cases the "doctoring" is to bring forth details that aren't visible to the naked eye. The spectral response of the human eye is limited. You are wise to not view them as all "what a human would see."
This. Lightwaves that cameras can capture but the human eye cannot see are shifted to enter the boundaries of the spectral response of the human eye. So while everything you see in a picture is real and exists, it may not be visible with the naked eye, should you have an opportunity to see the same view in person.
It's a digital representation of what it looks like. I don't think there are graphic designers coloring out sections of actual photographs. Also any blemish on the photographs is viewed as an alien mother-ship coming to invade earth, by the internet community.
Also any blemish on the photographs is viewed as an alien mother-ship coming to invade earth, by the internet community.
Why are blemishes and artifacts always away from the important features? The image is 'believed' when it shows something which is acceptable yet there is always an 'artifact' when there is something strange in the picture. strange <> artifact
NASA spends many thousands of dollars on the individual pieces equipment such as cameras and lenses sent to space and it is all chosen for its reliability and accuracy since there is no service facility where it is going. In spite of this, people who would have us believe there is no life out in space nearly always point at photographic artifacts to explain anomalous regions in the image. Either that or space debris. Of course, when there is just photographic evidence of something, it is not proper scientific evidence as it could always be interpreted as something else - depending on your belief system.
[sarcasm] NASA however is different and they can make announcements about water evidence from photographs as long as they have other rover-based analysis evidence as well. [/sarcasm]
======================
As I understand it, (and I may have got this wrong) often black and white photographs are taken through different filters which show the light coming in at various frequencies we interpret as colour when it is reflected off objects. In this way they can reconstruct images which contain the various colour frequencies which we would understand and so we can be fed colour images. Due to the atmosphere differences on different planets etc the colours we see may not be what they would be on Earth and so the 'mix' of colour frequencies they use to make up a colour image is according to what they think we would see if we were there. Hence the 'false colour' images we often get shown. How red Mars is is a manipulation of the black and white images they have captured, although there are colour cameras used now I believe on some missions.
I think generally they use the B & W and filters because there is room for a broader capture of frequencies and hence more for science to analyse. Also, some rocks etc can be determined by the refective colours they give off when different frequencies are shone on them too. In old MER photos the filter number is part of the file name and tells you what wavelength filter was used to capture that particular image.
It's a digital representation of what it looks like. I don't think there are graphic designers coloring out sections of actual photographs. Also any blemish on the photographs is viewed as an alien mother-ship coming to invade earth, by the tin hat Internet community.
Light travels 186,000 miles per second, or 6 trillion miles in a year. If our own sun went supernova, we wouldn't know about it for 8 minutes. So no, when you look up at the night sky with your naked eye, it's not an exact representation of the stars as they are right this second. It's a representation of the stars as they were thousands of years ago. It is possible that stars too far away to see with the naked eye are no longer there, because they are just so far away that by the time the light of a supernova hits earth for even the most powerful telescope to detect it, the event is long over. As this article notes, the further away a star is, the greater the chance that by the time we see it, it's no longer there. But it's not like stars go supernova all the time, either.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
