After seeing some impossibly sharp images on APOD and Astrobin IOTD recently, I asked around and found out that the trick behind them is Topaz Denoise AI and Sharpen AI. - see attached images for reference
I am interested in your thoughts about the use of these algorithms in astrophotography.
At what point do our image processing algorithms change from manipulating information that is already within the data, to generating information that was never there?
Should people explicitly disclose when these algorithms are used, if submitting them to APOD or competitions? Should there be separate categories for AI sharpened data?
I understand the general debate about whether Astrophotography more science or art, but I think this is a specific case where this distinction matters. How is it fair to compare data taken with a 24" Planewave to an 80mm refractor that is 'sharper' purely because of AI in a competition setting?
I know this has probably been discussed ad nauseam, but I couldn't seem to find any specific discussion, and I just want to hear what other people think
