Those of us who are amateur astronomers know that a small telescope often offers a view of the sky that, for people outside of their hobby, could be disappointing. And it is not surprising, because the media continually bombards us with shocking images that show beautiful full-color compositions of galaxies, nebulae, stars, and even black holes. However, despite the enormous differences between an amateur astronomical observation and the images disseminated by the media, when the amateur points his telescope at a specific place, he is invaded by a satisfaction that is difficult to express, even if the image is small and not very striking. But… who wouldn’t like to observe the sky with a device that would immediately offer one of those images that fascinate us so much?
The truth is that the reality of high-level astronomical observation is very different from what we imagine. on the blog of THAT (European Southern Observatory), astrophysicist Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos, media officer for THAT and editor of the blog, describes that reality in an article entitled: The complex journey from an idea to a final astronomical image. Such interesting outreach work that we have invited you to participate in Talking to Scientists.
How could it be otherwise, the blog post begins by showing two impressive images of the Helix Nebula, also known as Helix, NGC 7293 or the God’s Eye Nebula. It is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, located in the constellation Aquarius, 680 light years away from us. The nebula is actually a vast cloud of dust and gas that was ejected by a Sun-like star during the last stages of its life. With a small telescope its ringed shape can barely be guessed, but, observed with larger instruments, the vision changes completely.
The images offered on the blog show the product of two different observations. One was taken with the telescope MPG/ESO of 2.2 meters located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile and shows what the nebula looks like in the visible. The other was taken with the instrument’s infrared camera. VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy), which is part of the Paranal Observatory of THAT.
Those images are not accidental, not at all. Every time an instrument of THAT points to a specific region of the sky is because months, even years ago, a researcher or a research group had the idea of looking for something specific in that place in the sky. As Juan Carlos Muñoz comments during the interview “… at a scientific level everything starts with an idea and with a question that a researcher tries to answer.” Perhaps it was the confirmation of a hypothesis about star formation in a type of galaxies, the search for exoplanets around certain stars, etc. Be that as it may, that first idea begins a long and unknown path for most of us.
There are many scientists who have ideas that they want to see contrasted with the most modern astronomical instruments, but the observing time available in a telescope is limited. So a tough competition is established between them.
Proposals must be evaluated by a panel of experts who, in THAT, is run by the Observation Program Office. In this way, before starting, many proposals are left out of the competition and the authors will have to continue fighting to achieve their objectives.
The proposals accepted for observation then begin a path in which a multitude of people intervene who have been trained to get the best possible use of astronomical instruments. On many occasions, the researchers who make an observation proposal do not even get close to the astronomical observatories that are going to carry it out, they limit themselves to precisely stating their objectives. It is the experts, familiar with the sophisticated instruments and highly experienced, who carry out the observations. Of course, the process does not end there, there are additional steps to overcome: the weather, the reception of the data with the different instruments attached to the telescopes, the elaboration of these data and the preparation of these so that the researcher, perhaps thousands of kilometers away, receive them on your computer. That is the moment in which, perhaps, among the enormous volume of data, an image appears, beautiful, that makes you scream Eureka!
I invite you to listen to Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos, astrophysicist, head of media THAT in Garching and editor of the blog of THAT.
References:
The complex journey from an idea to a final astronomical image
THAT Blog
Image of the Helix Nebula
European Southern Observatory