Judy Schmidt tells us about her wonderful treatment of the James Webb clip

For 10 years already, she checked the data she obtained telescope my place Hubble, and now James Webb. Judy Schmidt, better known as jikzilla On its website and on flickror even the SpaceGeck app Twitter, amazes the world with the astronomical images it produces. Nothing escapes him: “I check the archive regularly, so when something interesting appears, I download and check it”, I told Futura. And more recently, JWST data has of course been in the spotlight! one army ” the computer windows [qu’elle a construit elle-même]From plank Wacom and Photoshop, plus a software FREE SHIPPINGESA It’s called FITS Editor., Jodi has already processed about 700 photos. Precise operation, especially for Colors. “I don’t know the exact number, but I’m sure it’s a very close approximation.”

Explain to the editor: “Colors are simply the product of combining data into the red, blue, and green channels. The original data is all grayscale images. I usually download every possible combination and look at each one to see what works best. Next, I’ll make sure to create the white balance , i.e. I adjust the color channels so that the image does not look too colorful in one color or another. Once the white balance is achieved, it looks more natural to us eyes. »

“Star nebulae are among the most beautiful places in the sky.”

When asked if she would prefer among the 700 photos taken, she replied: “This is the hardest question. There are a number of them dear to me.” But in the end, the chosen one is a nebula, specifically a part of Chameleon Complex. “Besides being one of the most difficult first images for me to create, I think nebulae Stars form from the most beautiful places in the sky, She is excited. The Chameleon complex has several sections: the part that Judy processed is the first, based on data obtained by Hubble.

Of course, this is not the only astronomical object that Jodi had the opportunity to study in detail. “I know what kind of object I’m dealing with almost every time, but many details visible in a given image other than the primary target may not have a name or designation yet, she explained. in rare cases, I figured something out and I can’t figure out what it is, so it might be something interesting. This only happened once with the Galaxy IC 5063, and I’m not sure if it will happen again. » In fact, this galaxy reveals a strange twilight rays recently analyzed by researchers.

Looking at this new photo of IC5063 (from Barth’s Prop15444), trying to see if I can generate a color image…maybe not, but are these cones I’m striving to see real, I wonder? ???? pic.twitter.com/EtMSyhhTkj

—Judy Schmidt (@SpaceGeck) December 2, 2019

More JWST images may be coming out soon…

Although she is internationally known for her pictures, especially before NASA who you have collaborated with recently, Judy Schmidt Don’t plan on making it a full time job. “I certainly cannot and do not want to. » Through initial training in graphic design, I have always loved astronomy and followed APOD (Today’s picture of astronomy) for years before it started processing the same data.

And the last one was more complicated than the others: Jupiter ! “rotation Jupiter it was a challenge, She explained. A telescope does not take all its images at the same time. Most are at least a few minutes away, but for the tricolor image of Jupiter in particular, one was more than 30 minutes behind the others. Jupiter rotates very quickly, so 30 minutes is more than enough for the planet to not line up with the other images at all. I fix this by projecting the image onto a 3D sphere, then using the 3D software to rotate that sphere to align with the previous images. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best way I know of to adjust them. » In this last photo, Jodi has collaborated with NASA. Soon more images from JWST will arrive, but we won’t know more until they’re released!