So you want to make a galaxy

Cosimo · 17 Feb 2011 at 17:46

Ever wondered how they make those wonderful images we see from Hubble. All you need is a telescope with cameras, raw images and Photoshop:

PermaBanned · 17 Feb 2011 at 17:58

'All you need'?

A decent imaging set up can easily cost upwards of £1000, and that's before you factor in the camera, and any modifications you want to do to it. Lower your expectations and you can do it for a lot less, although few people actually realize anywhere near the full potential of their equipment.

Imaging is not easy - photography during the day is easy, you have more photons than you know what to do with, it's like a raging river. But at night, if you can find a bit of sky not completely polluted with light, then it's like a dripping tap. That means long (very long) exposures (meaning tracking, to avoid star trails), lots of them, stacked and painstakingly edited.

Cosimo · 17 Feb 2011 at 19:04

Superewza said:
'All you need'? :

Wasn't I clear enough about what type telescope you would have to have access to?

SteveOBHave · 17 Feb 2011 at 20:13

I believe the 'Telescope' and 'Cameras' he is referring to is... wait for it... hubble itself! It's about compositing images - not taking the photos.

Mud · 17 Feb 2011 at 20:21

I'm very surprised they're using photoshop - I would've thought they'd have taken tighter control of the data, e.g., automatically identifying dead pixels rather than healing them away manually.

PhillyDee · 18 Feb 2011 at 02:25

Mud said:
I'm very surprised they're using photoshop - I would've thought they'd have taken tighter control of the data, e.g., automatically identifying dead pixels rather than healing them away manually.

Theres loads of ways of doing it, most of them free! It usually requires the use of dark frames and flats. This identifies dead pixels, hot pixels and dust and automatically subtracts them.