Astrophotography with FITS Liberator

Modern astronomical telescopes save their raw data in a format known as FITS (Flexible Image Transport System). The colorful images we see from space are created by transforming FITS imaging data into a standard graphical format, such as TIFF, to create a set of files that can be imported into an image editing application such as Photoshop or GIMP. If you know how to use image editing software, you can create your own "pretty pictures" of astronomical subjects by obtaining FITS files (available from a number of sources) and using the FITS Liberator to transform them into TIFF images.

FITS Liberator, developed by ESA/ESO/NASA, was originally a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop.  With the release of version 3, the open-source FITS Liberator has become a stand-alone application, with versions available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Using FITS data I obtained from NASA's virtual observatory, SkyView, I created the above image of M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy.  There are no doubt better images of M51 around, but this one is uniquely mine. Creating it was a fun learning experience.

You can learn more about FITS data and how to obtain it from The FITS Support Office
at NASA/GSFC and from Image Processing Resources for Astronomy Teaching by by the Astronomy Education Committee of the American Association of Physics Teachers.