Jayanne English's Visualization University of Alberta 2021

Visualization University of Alberta 2021

Workshop

Date: Tuesday Sept. 28, 2021
Workshop Time: 11 AM MDT; 12 PM CDT.
Zoom: contact sbabu@ualberta.ca.

A colloquium required for the workshop will be given Monday, Sept. 27 at 11 AM MDT. For Zoom information contact sbabu@ualberta.ca.

Abstract: From Cosmos to Canvas: Tensions between Art and Sciences.
Bold colour images from telescopes act as extraordinary ambassadors for astronomers because they pique the public's curiosity. Unfortunately attempts by scientists to represent their discoveries can tend to all but drown out the conventions of visual literacy. This can dilute the impact of an image. This session is to help you render your science images in the most effective manner possible while retaining scientific information. This hands-on workshop will help you to learn how to make outstanding, striking electronic images to support your science education and research endeavours in accurate, compelling ways. Bring your laptop and learn techniques of the imaging professionals.

This event consists of a lecture on Monday followed by this workshop on Tuesday. Information about what you should load onto your laptop is available at http://www.physics.umanitoba.ca/~english/vizAlberta/ which will be continually updated. It is best to work in 2s or 3s so if you don't mind and it is possible, please invite people in your COVID bubble to create with you during the workshop component.
Colour Image Construction Workshop:
- Black and White jpegs.
  Black and white images from an Hubble Space Telescope survey is provided below. Please download this set of greyscale images onto your laptop. We will manipulate them into colour images using GIMP at the workshop.
  Please download this set of greyscale images onto your laptop. We will manipulate them into colour images using GIMP or PhotoShop during the workshop:
  1. Visible Supernova Remnant: Hubble Space Telescope -- all of the files in this directory
- Needed for Creating Colour Images: GIMP
  If you do not have an image manipulation package on your computer (e.g. PhotoShop), the Gnu Image Manipulation Package is free, easy to install, and works on Linux as well as Microsoft. (You can use PhotoShop if you are an expert user and know how to set the "screen" algorithm between layers of images.)
- Monitor Calibration: Please calibrate your monitor before the workshop. Work in darkness or some sunlight. Do not work in flourescent light. If possible set the monitor's gamma value to 2.2 and white point temperature to 6500K. More details are at the link on my visualization page.

Alternative greyscale images for practise:

Invisible Radio Nebulae: Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory Synthesis Telescope -- all of the files in this directory
Galaxy: NGVSurvey Canada France Hawaii Telescope -- all of the files in this directory

(Note that these images are smaller "thumbnail" versions of the data so that image manipulation exploration will be quicker.)

Other Useful Links for Cosmos versus Canvas Experiments:

There are various stages of image production. This workshop only deals with the second one.

Stretching Black and White Images.
Assigning Colour and Composing Images.
Masking Together Different Datasets.

1. Needed for Stretching B+W images:

the Cosmos vs Canvas YouTube playlist

Karma
This astronomy visualization package accepts FITS files as input, allows very fine adjustments (using KVIS) and outputs results as ppm or postscript files. These outputs can be loaded into manipulation packages like GIMP and PhotoShop.
FITS Liberator
If you are using PhotoShop, then you can import your fits file into the software using FITS Liberator. (This is an alternative for the image-maker to explore on their own.)

2. Assigning Colour and Composition :
See workshop above.

3. Masking Technique:
Masking is an advanced technique. It is briefly described in a posting on Illuminated Universe about edge-on galaxy NGC 5775 .

Resources

Selected Videos:
- Jayanne's Green-Templeton College lecture at Voices from Oxford.
- Jayanne's extensive Cosmos vs Canvas tutorials on YouTube.
Selected Articles:
- Canvas and cosmos: Visual art techniques applied to astronomy data The link is to the official website. It is also available on the archive.
- Image-Processing Techniques for the Creation of Presentation-Quality Astronomical Images. The bible on how to make astronomy images by Travis Rector, Zoltan Levay, Lisa Frattare, Jayanne English and Kirk Pu'uohau Pummill
- Summary of Jayanne's GIMP tutorial on how to construct an image.
- Behind the Pictures by the folk at Space Telescope Science Institute. Simplistic, it uses only 3 colours while most of the images are constructed out of more colours. This site also explains the wacky "chevron" shape in most of the HST images.
A Selection of Image Websites:
- Jayanne's Visualization website.
- Hubble Heritage Project. Classic Hubble Telescope images produced monthly.
- Anglo-Australian Observatory. David Malin uses photographic film and filters to capture what the human eye WOULD see, if the human eye were as sensitive to light as our astronomy detectors.
- International/Canadian Galactic Plane Survey. Images produced using mainly radio telescope data from the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory.
- Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Image of the month.
- Gemini Telescope Images.
- National Radio Astronomical Observatory Gallery.

Contact Information

Dr. Jayanne English
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada R3T 2N2

Office: (204)-474-7105
Physics & Astronomy Office: (204)-474-9817

Email: jayanne_english@umanitoba.ca