Jayanne English's Homepage

Visualization for the Canadian Space Society 2015

Welcome to the site for the astronomy visualization workshop to be held by Jayanne English (U. Manitoba). I will begin with lecture called Cosmos versus Canvas. After a brief break we will subsequently review key ideas and then do a hands-on workshop where you actually make an image. Please bring your laptop. It is best to work in 2s or 3s so if you don't mind, please invite people who don't have laptops to create with you during the workshop component. Below are items you will need for this workshop component.

Feb 7, 2015

• From Cosmos to Canvas: Tensions between Art and Science in Astronomy Images.
  Bold colour images from telescopes act as extraordinary ambassadors for astronomers because they pique the public's curiosity. But are they snapshots documenting physical reality? Or are we looking at artistic spacescapes created by digitally manipulating astronomy images? This lecture and workshop provides a tour of how original black and white data from the Hubble Space Telescope, for example, are converted into the colour images gracing magazines. Each image is a battlefield where the attempt by scientists to represent their discoveries all but drowns out the voice of visual literacy. This can dilute the impact of an image. Yet sometimes in this battle, between the cultures of science and visual art, both sides win. This session is to help you render your astronomy images in the most effective manner possible. The hands-on workshop will help you to learn how to make outstanding, striking electronic images to support your endeavours in accurate, compelling ways. This struggle will be presented from the perspective of a professional astronomer who has not only worked for NASA but also trained as an artist. So bring your laptop and learn techniques of the imaging professionals, such as those at NASA.
  
  

  Information about what you should load your laptop with is available at http://www.physics.umanitoba.ca/~english/vizCSS/. It is best to work in 2s or 3s so if you don't mind, please invite people who don't have laptops to create with you during the workshop component. (This workshop follows one of the tutorials in the YouTube videos which are linked at Jayanne's Visualization website.)
  
  

• Needed for the Workshop Component:
  • Black and White jpegs.
    If you have your own data, please bring totally processed black & white jpeg files. You should have at least 3 different images that you wish to combine.

    If you do not have data of your own, please download this set of greyscale images onto your laptop. We will manipulate them into colour images using GIMP or PhotoShop during the workshop:
    
    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.)