How telescope photographs of galaxies are made.

Sky surveys

Large surveys photograph the sky systematically, field by field, rather than aiming at one object. Two of them cover most of the galaxies in our catalogue:

• The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, made with telescopes in Chile and Arizona to map the sky for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
• Pan-STARRS1, a 1.8-metre telescope on Haleakalā, Hawaii, which surveyed three quarters of the sky.

Where the colour comes from

Survey cameras photograph through separate filters. Images through three filters are assigned to red, green and blue to make a colour picture. The colours are real light, shifted into a visible palette.

From survey frame to print

A survey frame is made for science: it carries sensor noise, satellite trails and the seams between detectors. Galaxy Origins finishes the frame for print, removing the noise and resolving detail, while keeping the galaxy's shape, orientation and scale exactly as the telescope recorded them. Each finish is checked against the catalogue measurements before it can be printed. Photography and provenance.

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