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Preparing Red‐Green‐Blue Images from CCD Data
Open accessAbstract
We present a new, and we believe arguably correct, algorithm for producing red‐green‐blue (RGB) composites from three‐band astronomical images. Our method ensures that an object with a specified astronomical color (e.g., g − r and r − i ) has a unique color in the RGB image, as opposed to the burnt‐out white stars to which we are accustomed. A natural consequence of this is that we can use the same colors to code color‐magnitude diagrams, providing a natural "index" to our images. We also introduce the use of an arcsinh stretch that allows us to show faint objects while simultaneously preserving the structure of brighter objects in the field, such as the spiral arms of large galaxies. We believe that in addition to their aesthetic value, our images convey far more information than do the traditional ones, and we provide examples from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging, the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), and Chandra to support our claims. 4
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Research works printed but not linked: 8
- 10.1086/378165 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1086/301004 · DOI · Paper page
- Lupton, R. H., etal 2001, in ASP Conf. Ser. 238, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems X, ed. F. R. Harnden, Jr., F. A. Primini, & H. E. Payne (San Francisco: ASP), 269
- 10.1086/160817 · DOI · Paper page
- Malin D., 1992, QJRAS, 33, 321
- Villard R., 2002, S&T, 104, 28
- 10.1086/118105 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1086/301513 · DOI · Paper page
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Self-citationLintott, C. J., Schawinski, K., Slosar, A., Land, K., Bamford, S., Thomas, D., Raddick, M. J., Nichol, R. C., Szalay, A., Andreescu, D., et al. (2008) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13689.x · Cited by 1,488
Self-citationAhn, C. P., Alexandroff, R., Allende Prieto, C., Anderson, S. F., Anderton, T., Andrews, B. H., Aubourg, É., Bailey, S., Balbinot, E., Barnes, R., et al. (2012) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/203/2/21 · Cited by 1,455
Self-citationWillett, K. W., Lintott, C. J., Bamford, S. P., Masters, K. L., Simmons, B. D., Casteels, K. R. V., Edmondson, E. M., Fortson, L. F., Kaviraj, S., Keel, W. C., et al. (2013) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stt1458 · Cited by 659
Second data release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
Aihara, H., AlSayyad, Y., Ando, M., Armstrong, R., Bosch, J., Egami, E., Furusawa, H., Furusawa, J., Goulding, A., Harikane, Y., et al. (2019) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan · doi:10.1093/pasj/psz103 · Cited by 511
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lupton, R., Blanton, M. R., Fekete, G., Hogg, D. W., O’Mullane, W., Szalay, A., & Wherry, N.
- Venue
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2004-02
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 816
- Pages
- 133-137
- ISSN
- 0004-6280 (ISSN-L)
- 1538-3873
- OpenAlex
- W1981452559
- Cited by
- 420
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 13.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
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- Lupton, R., Blanton, M. R., Fekete, G., Hogg, D. W., O’Mullane, W., Szalay, A., & Wherry, N. (2004). Preparing Red‐Green‐Blue Images from CCD Data. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. https://doi.org/10.1086/382245
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