To be honest, I dont know what 'FITS' means

Space/Science » in reply to Congratulations

To be honest, I dont know what 'FITS' means

R.L. — 9/19/2004 4:44:53 AM (archived)

Just that it isnt terribly compact. I once asked CFHT for a FITS image- it turned out to be tens of megabytes. As for seeing what the Eagle nebula _really_ looks like, well we will never know... until we go there. The galactic center pix were taken at wavelengths that human eyes cant see. Adaptive optics is currently limited to near IR. colors were assigned to the pix to highlight certain featres like the star in the lower left corner of the panorama that is compacting a dust cloud with a shock wave.

To be honest, the pictures you see show FAR more detail than the human eye could see. We enhance certain wavelengths to see the science... For instance, the picture of the Egg nebula could not show the central star if we looked at 'natural' wavelengths. The wavelengths that made it through the dust were not in the visible range.

Adaptive optics is currently limited to near IR wavelengths... but that will soon change, there are plans to expand AO to shorter wavelength....s

The whole thread (28 posts)

NEW HIGHEST RESOLUTION IMAGES OF THE GALACTIC CENTER, AND A MOVIE OF A BLACK HOLE HAVING A SNACK - R.L. - 9/17/2004 7:40:06 PM
- It would be safe to say that commercial pilots steer clear of your lovely Hawaiian island mountain. Haven't seen many pilots lately with white canes. ;-) - Jacob Samorodin - 9/20/2004 6:10:37 PM
  - I almost bought my first Weekly World News a month or so ago - R.L. - 9/21/2004 2:08:25 AM
- Guide stars and guiding - SteveS - 9/20/2004 1:09:23 PM
  - The not so short answer - R.L. - 9/21/2004 1:41:02 AM
    - Interesting - SteveS - 9/21/2004 3:28:46 AM
      - Well, I wouldnt qualify as even an amatuer astronomer - R.L. - 9/21/2004 6:19:23 AM
        
        re: Well, I wouldnt qualify as even an amatuer astronomer - SteveS - 9/21/2004 12:48:14 PM
    - Sorry if I wasn't terribly clear in that explanation - R.L. - 9/21/2004 1:47:50 AM
- one of the best feelings of all - - Daniel - 9/19/2004 7:05:59 PM
- re: Keck - Raoul - 9/19/2004 4:02:18 PM
- Nice Pictures R.L., very nice. - jms - 9/19/2004 2:16:07 PM
  - Keck web page on the laser guide star - R.L. - 9/19/2004 4:02:56 PM
  - Our PR person does a great job... - R.L. - 9/19/2004 3:42:31 PM
    - I thought I saw symmetry there...cool. (n/t) - jms - 9/19/2004 8:36:16 PM
- Exquisite! (n/t) - Robert - 9/18/2004 4:12:11 PM
  - Many of the stars seen in the narrow field images had never been seen before - R.L. - 9/18/2004 7:11:37 PM
    - Congratulations - Robert - 9/19/2004 3:11:15 AM
      - To be honest, I dont know what 'FITS' means - R.L. - 9/19/2004 4:44:53 AM
        
        "Flexible Image Transport System" - Robert - 9/19/2004 6:19:35 PM
        
        oops, guess I did know, just forgot - R.L. - 9/19/2004 8:58:19 PM
        
        Thanks. - Robert - 9/19/2004 9:28:36 PM
- 80" x 80" panorama of galactic center - R.L. - 9/18/2004 2:27:36 AM
  - re: Beautiful! Thank you, RL!!! All wonderful! Congratulations! (n/t) - Marcia - 9/20/2004 10:16:20 PM
- re: Great!! - Raoul - 9/17/2004 8:03:29 PM
  - Indications of another flare were detected a few days before that one by one of the southern scopes - R.L. - 9/17/2004 8:13:59 PM
    - Makes me wonder . . . - Fox - 9/19/2004 2:36:25 PM
      - I can ask... - R.L. - 9/19/2004 2:58:04 PM

Recent posts

On this day in Space/Science

The whole thread (28 posts)