Shooting Stars, Part I – Imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope

In the first of our two-part series on astrophotography, we are fortunate to be joined by two scientists responsible for some of the most awe-inspiring images ever created. Astrophysicist Dr. Jeff Hester was a member of the team that built the camera on the Hubble Space Telescope and is credited with taking “Pillars of Creation,” an extraordinary image of the Eagle Nebula that has been selected by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential photographs in history. Dr. Hester tells us about his time working on the Hubble and how this image was created, as well as offering his insight on the nature of beauty and the relationship between science and art (Hint: They’re not as different as you might think.) Also joining us is Zoltan Levay, the Imaging Team Lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute, whose principal responsibility is to produce and publicize pictures from the Hubble. Mr. Levay discusses the relative nature of color, his techniques for coloring and composing photographs, and the differences between the images that come to him as “data” from the telescope and the published images with which we are more familiar. Again, science and art blend as we ask why certain colors are chosen to represent various celestial bodies, and come to realize that the decisions made and processes used in the top tiers of astrophotography are not that different from those we ourselves make in our own post-processing. Guests: Zoltan Levay and Dr. Jeff Hester Photograph: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Next week’s episode, Shooting Stars, Part II – The Lonely Speck