does anyone else not like james webb pictures?

[coppercone2]

I have been studying photographs taken by the JWST and I gotta say they lose my interest pretty quick.

The hubble pictures are interesting to me. The infrared content of the JWST just makes me lose interest, it looks like boring


NASA needs to get better visible to get those government dollars

[jpanhalt]

So?  Don't shut your eyes.

[SiliconWizard]

Really? Is that boring? https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-provides-another-look-into-galactic-collisions/

Sure the images shown there are reconstructed, they aren't what you would see with your naked eye and require some significant processing, but that's still not that boring and that still comes from actual data, it's not hallucinated pictures. That I know of.

Any decent image of space past a certain distance requires a lot of processing anyway, even when taken with purely optical telescopes in the visible light spectrum, otherwise all you can see is fuzzy spots. Pretty much.

[magic]

But it's not the Horsehead Nebula, so it's boring

By the way, a rather weird choice of forum section to post this in

[coppercone2]

I want to know why its not interesting. I think it has something to do with computer image processing, or maybe I just don't like NIR.

I thought I could spend hours looking at them, but actually I just want to see more hubble.

[Benta]

So where's the project here?

[coppercone2]

fix the pictures

its kind of like making the cat interested in a computer, i just don't know whats wrong

it functions as a good star counting machine, but not a good telescope, IMO

[SiliconWizard]

Maybe just use some generative AI to turn those boring images into fascinating stuff.

[coppercone2]

I think thats the problem, trying to guess what the visible is from the IR makes it look bizzare

Their not kidding when they say its not a replacement.

[Andy Chee]

'interesting' is in the eye of the beholder.

If it's the quality of the telescope images you are complaining about, as opposed to the content of the telescope images, then that comes down to the improved hardware onboard JWST, not necessarily image processing.

Think of it like comparing CRT vs. LED/LCD displays.  Some content just looks better on CRT.

[Andy Chee]

I think thats the problem, trying to guess what the visible is from the IR makes it look bizzare

Their not kidding when they say its not a replacement.

No, it's not a problem.  You can obtain the raw IR data and map it to your own personal colour rendering balance preferences.

Also bear in mind that there is no science to be gained from the false colour images, hence, the person doing the colour rendering is only doing it for the benefit of the public.

[coppercone2]

its not good for seeing what space would actually look like if your proposing we need to guess at filters


I have a feeling it won't generate as much interest in space, unless your obsessed about counting stars

I sure hope NASA has another optical one planned

[Andy Chee]

its not good for seeing what space would actually look like if your proposing we need to guess at filters

Ummm it's infrared..... space would actually look invisible to the naked eye.....

Essentially the guess is more about, "what would humans see if they could see infrared?"  And there is definitely no way around guessing that!

[coppercone2]

yeah ok because someone would think I meant 'see vacuum' for some strange reason 

[Andy Chee]

yeah ok because someone would think I meant 'see vacuum' for some strange reason 

Not at all.  Have you ever used a FLIR camera to look at hot components on a circuit board?  Now try that with your naked eyes.... you won't see a thing.

[Kim Christensen]

Interesting that you mentioned Hubble.
Look into "Hubble's Law" and you'll see that the further a galaxy/star is from us, the more redshifted it's light will be. So it makes sense that the objects James Webb was designed to observe would be in the infrared and the images would need to be processed for us to "see" them.

[coppercone2]

what gets me the most is that its even more useless information when its that far away. They seem to be focusing on the stuff that is not even remotely imaginable to get to. I don't see it as a improvement

I think it would be smart to look for something green. In the desert your ass is dead unless you find something green. Blue sounds good but it will just be ammonia. All this early universe stuff is like a ouija board for astronomers

[Andy Chee]

what gets me the most is that its even more useless information when its that far away. They seem to be focusing on the stuff that is not even remotely imaginable to get to. I don't see it as a improvement

Get to?  As in human space travel???  That is an extremely narrow minded view of the large discipline of astronomy & astrophysics.

Science doesn't have to have immediate utilitarian application.

And science has nothing to do with preference utilitarianism i.e. "liking pictures". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preference_utilitarianism

[TimFox]

The IR imaging here is to study the structure of the universe, not to make images in “true color”.
Similarly, the “Chandra” satellite makes images from x rays, not visible light.

[Kim Christensen]

I think it's a bit like showing a kid some electronics you've been working on. The kid says, "How boring..." because there are no flashing lights, moving objects, or interesting things to see on the PCB. James Webb is more about the data it supplies to scientists than pretty pictures for you and me.
Webb can characterize the atmosphere of Earth-sized exoplanets. So that's very interesting to me even if it's too far to ever reach.

[SiliconWizard]

I think it would be smart to look for something green. In the desert your ass is dead unless you find something green. Blue sounds good but it will just be ammonia. All this early universe stuff is like a ouija board for astronomers

 

[Andy Chee]

JWST has four key goals:

    to search for light from the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe after the Big Bang
    to study galaxy formation and evolution
    to understand star formation and planet formation
    to study planetary systems and the origins of life

If your telescope goals are different, perhaps you should list them instead of complaining.

[TimFox]

Even in conventional photography, some people like false-color infrared images:  a matter of taste.