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My brother said all deep space photos should be in natural color
We were looking at a shot of the Orion Nebula from the Hubble, and he argued the false color composites are basically sci-fi art. He said if it's not what our eyes would see, it's not real astronomy. But I think those processed images reveal details, like hydrogen alpha emissions, that are scientifically valid. Where do you all stand on artistic processing versus pure data?
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thomas2751mo agoMost Upvoted
Grace_knight70 gets it, our eyes are pretty limited.
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ellis.hayden1mo ago
Wait, is it really just about what our eyes can see? The colors in those pictures aren't random... they're like a map. They shift invisible light, like infrared, into colors we can understand. It's not sci-fi, it's a translation. So a red patch might mean a certain type of gas is there. Calling it fake misses the point of what they're trying to show us.
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grace_knight701mo ago
Look, it's space dust and gas clouds a zillion miles away... who cares if it's pink or blue? They're just trying to show us stuff our dumb eyes can't see on their own. Seems like a weird hill for your brother to die on.
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