FITS Liberator
Encyclopedia
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
/NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Photoshop FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Liberator is a free plugin for Adobe Photoshop, which makes it possible to process and edit astronomical science data in the FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
format to produce stunning images of the universe.
The FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
file format archives nearly all images of stars, nebulae and galaxies produced by outer space and ground-based telescopes from all over the world.
The engine behind the FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Liberator is NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
’s CFITSIO library. FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
is an abbreviation for Flexible Image Transport System and has been a standard since 1982 and is recognized by the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
.
Although the first version of the software was an excellent tool mainly for professional astronomers, efforts have been made to bring high quality astronomical images to the homes of amateur astronomers, educators and students. The FITS Liberator has also become the industry standard for professional imaging scientists at the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
. It is utilized on images from the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
and the Very Large Telescope
Very Large Telescope
The Very Large Telescope is a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The VLT consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2m across, which are generally used separately but can be used together to...
(VLT), among others, to craft beautiful astronomical colour images.
The first and second versions of the FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Liberator were released in July 2004 and in August 2005 respectively. The latest version of this image processing software, V.3.0, was released in October 2010 and is available for download at the European Homepage of the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
. V3.0 is a standalone product as Adobe Photoshop is no longer required to use it.
Version 1
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
/NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Photoshop FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Liberator was completed in July 2004 by imaging scientists at the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
. Version allowed all types of FITS images to be opened and also some limited interaction with the images.
Version 2
1. The preview window2. Histogram
3. Tools
4. Statistics
5. Advanced tools for scaling and stretch
The simple workflow is to open a FITS image, study it in the Preview window, adjust the black- and white levels (6) to give a reasonable contrast, and then set the input range for the scaling of the image by clicking Auto Scaling Button (7). Now different values of the Scaled Peak level can be tested to scale the image more or less to better fit with one of the possible Stretch functions (8).
Version 2 of the ESA/ESO
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
/NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Photoshop FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Liberator image processing software made it both easier and faster to create colour images from raw observations. Its numerous improvements included, among others:
- FITS images with up to 4 billion greyscales can be processed (32 bit support).
- FITS images with up to 500 million pixels or more can be processed (100 times larger than standard images from a digital camera).
- With a re-designed workflow and improved user interface, it is easier to use. The plug-in, for instance, remembers previous settings.
- New options for advanced scaling and stretching.
A whole section of v.2 was dedicated to inputting metadata, and the user also had access to a text version of the original FITS header.
With the advent of the FITS Liberator v.2, it became possible for people at home to create spectacular pictures like the iconic Hubble image “Pillars of Creation” in a matter of minutes.
Now, an updated version of the popular software containing new scaling and stretching tools to better manipulate astronomical images is available. One of the key updates in v.2.1 is the ability for users to embed descriptive information about the image and what it shows, so-called metadata, directly within the final image. Based on a new standard for Astronomy Visualization Metadata
Astronomy Visualization Metadata
Astronomy Visualization Metadata is a standard for tagging digital astronomical images stored in formats such as JPEG, GIF, PNG and TIFF. The AVM standard extends the concept of Extensible Metadata Platform headers to include useful astronomical information about the subject of the image as well...
, this information is stored in the standard manner like that used by digital cameras to record exposure information.
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
/NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Photoshop FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Liberator has been improved in several areas, some of which are:
- Update of Metadata Support to Astronomy Visualization MetadataAstronomy Visualization MetadataAstronomy Visualization Metadata is a standard for tagging digital astronomical images stored in formats such as JPEG, GIF, PNG and TIFF. The AVM standard extends the concept of Extensible Metadata Platform headers to include useful astronomical information about the subject of the image as well...
version 1.0 standard. - Advanced stretching and scaling functions.
- Support for Adobe Bridge added.
- Significant speed improvements on Mac OS X.
- Minor bug fixes.
- New Extras.
The ESA/ESO
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
/NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
WFPC2 Mosaicator: This new add-on tool works on Hubble WFPC2 images. It will generate a single WFPC2 mosaic'ed file from one WFPC2 file containing four CCD images in individual planes.
The ESA/ESO
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
/NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Concatenator: This Adobe Photoshop script will combine the metadata from two or more individual exposures after the FITS
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...
Liberation process.
How to use it
The ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop Liberator is fairly self-explanatory. A User's Guide, which focuses on explaining the various features, sliders and buttons in the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the plug-in, can be retrieved from the European Homepage of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.External links
- The ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator v.2.3 spacetelescope.org
- NASA’s CFITSIO