1. Youth AstroNet Program More Tools
This presentation based on information and materials from The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Science Education Portal
Questions about this presentation? Contact Carolyn

2. How to Process an Image
Go to
microobservatory.org

3. Scroll down…Click on YouthAstroNet Portal

4. Click on YouthAstroNet Activity Portal

5. Login?

6. You should be here:

7. Scroll down… click on MicroObservatory Robotic Tools

8. Click on Use the images in JS9

9. Hover on Archived Images
On the menu that appears, click on M51Whirlpoo (this is the Whirlpool Galaxy)

10. Your image should look like this…
What Scale should we use?

11. Scale
Change your Scale to log.
Your image should look like this.

12. Brightness Limits Find your LOWEST and HIGHEST Pixel Values.
Adjust your Brightness Limits.
Can you see the Whirlpool Galaxy?

13. Region Stats Another way to find your brightness limits:
Hover over Region and click on Box.
Click and drag the box over the area you think has the brightest spot.
Hover over Analysis and click on Region Stats.
Click on the green box.
The Region Stats will have the min and max pixel value (min=low, max=high).

14. Region Stats
Now drag the green box to the area you think has the lowest pixel value.
You MUST click on the green box to update the Region Stats information.
What is the lowest pixel value you find?

15. Stretch/Contrast Shift/Bias
Adjust your Stretch/Contrast and Shift/Bias.

16. Adding Text Hover on Region and click on Text.
Double-click to add text.

17. Adding Text Click and drag over Double-click to add text here.
Enter “Whirlpool Galaxy”.
Then, scroll down (or drag the bottom right corner of the window down).

18. Adding Text Click on Apply. Then, click on Close.
Then, you can click and drag your text to another part of the image.
You can also click and drag on the corner to change the size of your text.

19. Color?
Now you may adjust the color of your image.

21. Zoom Hover on Region and click on box.
Click and drag the edges (not the corners) of the box to enclose the area you want to enlarge.

22. Zoom Hover over Zoom and click on Zoom 2.
You can click and drag the image to keep the part of the image you want to zoom in on centered.

23. Low Brightness Limits
Now that you are zoomed in, see if you can find an area with a lower Pixel Value. If you can, adjust your Low Brightness Limit.
Then, adjust your Stretch/Contrast and Shift/Bias until you are happy with your image.
If you save your image while it is zoomed, it will only save the “zoomed” part.

24. Zoom
To get back to your normal size image, hover over Zoom and click on Reset Zoom.
When you are happy with your picture, save it as a PNG file.