Digital Noise and Deep Sky

I love taking pictures of the sky. Taking some time to observe and enjoy the vast expanse above us makes me feel insignificant and very important at the same time. The picture above is of the Milky Way taken from Goblin Valley Utah.

I've recently started to learn about deep sky photography, which is way harder than just taking pictures of the Milky Way. This is an image I did on Monday night in my backyard with a DSLR camera. (I know... there's a lot wrong with this, you DSO gurus can feel free to comment - my next one will be better). This is actually a side-by-side with the original picture on the left, and on the right is the result of 'the process'. If you want to see a full-size unprocessed single exposure, here is a link to download one.

As I was working through the process of turning that blah photo on the left to the one on the right, I had some thoughts about life that I'd like to share.

The process of revealing the invisible consists of:

1. Understand bias - every camera sensor has some electronic bias. Take a bunch of dark pictures at super fast shutter speed to figure out what its bias is so you can adjust for that later.
2. Eliminate electronic noise and bias - even in the dark, your camera will produce noise - especially at long exposure times. Take a bunch of long exposures with the lens cap on to figure out what the noise is. Now subtract any bias created in the camera's electronics from the dark pictures and merge them all together to create a map that represents what the camera thinks 'dark' is.
3. Eliminate optical distortions - sensors with lenses and filters don't record flat light evenly. Take a bunch of pictures of flat white light. Calibrate and merge these into the dark map to make up for the optical issues.
4. Eliminate pollution and digital noise - Take a bunch of pictures of the same thing - in this case, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Take the pictures using filters that only let certain wavelengths of light in thus removing glow from pollution. Each picture is going to have a lot of digital noise in it. Across each of the pictures, the noise will change, but the stars will stay the same. The more pictures you take, the more noise you can remove by looking at the differences. Use your dark map to help figure out what to keep, what to remove, and what to highlight.

Eliminating bias, distortion, pollution, and noise can help you see more clearly; even see things that, without the effort, you'd swear are not there. I was thinking how similar this is to other aspects of life. We all have an opportunity to see things more clearly, but it requires stripping away bias and noise.

Bias and distortion - We're all wired a little differently and have different predispositions. We can all think of a time when our own experience informed our interpretation of a situation only to discover we were totally wrong. Sometimes we expect everyone to be a cookie-cutter version of what we deem to be 'normal'. If we understand ourselves better, we can understand the world around us better. If we know our own biases, we can be more patient and understanding.

Noise - What has the most impact on transforming the image on the left into the one on the right is the ability to remove the pollution and noise. I'd say that the path of least resistance for all of us is to be a reactive person floating along in a stream of noise that constitutes our daily routine. The noise causes stress and worry, it never leads to something beautiful, but rather, it obscures reality. There is plenty of digital noise (social media, news, entertainment, and other inbound information), there is noise in the form of job-related activity that may not be necessary, and there is noise that comes from being only reactive to the world around us.

I am of the opinion that our lives are part of a great plan our creator has for each of us and that often what prevents us from seeing the beauty of it is the noise, the bias, and the distortions we pick up along the way. I am also of the opinion that making conscious effort to remove this distracting noise is a leap of faith as you can't really see at first what great things are hidden. In moments of quiet reflection though, we can sense there is something greater - it may even seem obscure, like you can't put your finger on it. If this happens to you, think of the beautiful Whirlpool Galaxy 23.16 million light years away from us, and remember that you'd never be able to see without going through the serious process of removing noise.