6 ms·
That's not right. I'm an astronomer, and I often look at colour images and colleagues do, too. For example, the galaxies in a cluster of galaxies follow a relat
by xioxox 1y ago
That's not right. I'm an astronomer, and I often look at colour images and colleagues do, too. For example, the galaxies in a cluster of galaxies follow a relation of colours - brightness (the "red sequence"), which can be used to detect the cluster. The eye is also quite good at helping confirm a cluster by spotting the galaxies following this sequence. I also use colour images to help identify spectral changes that change across an image, in my case in the X-ray waveband.
- DiogenesKynikos 1y agoMost astronomers look at the red sequence on a scatterplot, with each point being based on the measured fluxes of one galaxy. Very few astronomers are literally looking at color images to eyeball these measurements. There are edge cases in which astronomers will load up images at multiple wavelengths and overlay them, but this is not the normal case. By and large, they're looking at a single channel at a time. Even more commonly than that, they're working with catalogs automatically generated from images.
- xioxox 1y agoYou are plainly wrong. I know several astronomers who look at colour images to check that the software is working properly.
- DiogenesKynikos 1y ago"Several" out of how many? This just isn't common in astronomy, outside of public outreach.