INTRODUCTION TO MICROOBSERVATORY

This activity is designed for new users.  It will take you through the 
steps of getting familiar with the MicroObservatory site, learning how 
to use the telescopes, and basic image processing techniques.  
It is recommended that you print this out, as you will likely need to
refer to the instructions while you conduct the activity.

Step One:  Enrolling

To use the MicroObservatory telescopes, you must become a 
MicroObservatory Team Member by enrolling through the MicroObservatory 
web site.  Do this by going to the Home Page and
clicking on "Enroll,"  and choosing, "Enroll for the first time."  
You will be asked for a password to enroll, at which you should type in
 "motm" (minus the quotes).  This stands for MicroObservatory Team Member.

Please complete the entire form. 
DO NOT FORGET THE USERNAME AND PASSWORD YOU CHOOSE
ON THIS FORM, AS IT WILL BE REQUIRED EACH TIME YOU TAKE AN IMAGE 
WITH THE TELESCOPES.
We recommend using the same e-mail name and password you use for e-mail.  
All of the images you take will be identified by your username in the image 
directory; if it matches your e-mail name, you can easily direct other 
users to your images.

Step Two:  Selecting a Telescope

Select Telescopes from the Home Page, which brings you to a page through 
which you must select the MicroObservatory telescope you would like to use.  
Before making this selection, be sure to check 2 things:  
1)  Telescope status:  The telescope must be ONLINE.  If you request
 an image from a telescope that is not online, your image will not be taken.  
Depending on the reason why the telescope is offline, your image request 
may or may not be placed in a queue and taken when the telescope is online.  
This is not recommended, as it is not always possible to predict when offline 
telescopes will be online again, and you cannot be guarenteed that your image 
was placed in the queue.  
2) Local weather at the telescope site.
The satellite images you link to are updated several times a day so that you may choose the
site with the clearest skies.  

Once you are sure the telescope is online and the skies are clear, 
select a telescope by clicking on the green circle located on the map 
that represents the region in which the telescope you want to use is located.

Step Three:	Requesting Images at the Telescope Control Center

You must first enter your username and password, 
which you selected when you enrolled.

When to take an image:
When you determine what you would like to take an image of, 
you must be sure that you set the time when the object will be above 
the horizon.  You can find out by clicking "What's Up" in the MicroObservatory frame.  
If you have a simulation program such as Voyager or The Sky,
you can find this information there as well.  

Where to point the telescope:
You may select an object you would like to take an image of, 
by highlighting it in the list of objects, if it appears there.  
If the object is not on the list, you must enter the coordinates,
 RA (right ascension) and Dec (Declination).  This information is in the 
"What's Up" page for many sky objects, or by using one of the sky 
simulation programs.  You may also choose to enter the coordinates instead 
of selecting the object from the list, for instructional
 purposes.

Camera Selection, Exposure time, Filter

Check the "settings" guide to find out which camera settings are best 
for the object you wish to take (eg, the Moon works best using the 
Main camera, with an exposure time at a fraction
of a second, grey (ND4) filter, zoom out and default focus).

Follow the directions to complete the form on the "Control Telescope" page.  
Be sure to check the "Settings" guide which lists the suggested settings 
(camera, exposure times, filter, and
focus) for the Moon, Galaxies, Planets, and Nebulae.

Step Four:  Getting your images

You will receive an e-mail message for each image that was taken.  
To retrieve it, go to "Get Images."  Click on your username to see your image.  
You will see a page that contains your image, along with the information 
that you input when you requested it.  

Save your image, or any image, by following the instructions for saving the 
image as a GIF or
 FITS file.

Explore the other images in this file and also in the Image Archive to get 
an idea of how various objects appear using the MicroObservatory telescopes. 
Be sure to save any images you wish to keep, as images in the Main Image 
Directory are automatically deleted in one week.

Step Five:  Image processing

Using one of the Image Processing programs you downloaded, or a different 
one that you have selected on your own, you may start by opening one of 
your saved images in the image processing program.  
Launch the program, and then open your image.

To use NIH Image with MicroObservatory Images, you may need to 
first convert your image into TIFF format (if your version of NIH does 
not have FITS capability).  You can open your FITS or GIF image in 
Graphic Converter, and save it as a TIFF file.  You may also use Graphic
 Converter for image processing, but its functions are more limited those in NIH.

There is a lot more information in a typical image than meets the eye at first. 
To bring out the fine details, you must PROCESS YOUR IMAGE.  
Following is a brief descriptionof the kinds of processing that may be 
useful in your activities (this information can also be found in the 
MicroObservatory Online Users' Guide. 

ADJUSTING CONTRAST AND BRIGHTNESS. This is the simplest
processing you can do. It is very useful for faint and low-contrast objects like
galaxies or nebula.

BACKGROUND SPECKS. Some (or many) of the little white dots in your
image are NOT stars: If they are a single pixel ("picture element") wide, they are
likely to be background noise, called "hot pixels". This noise comes from the
light-sensing electronic chip itself and is caused by heat, cosmic rays and other
factors. You can eliminate this in programs like Adobe Photoshop that allow
you to remove "dust" from photographs.

BACKGROUND NOISE. If you use the opaque filter and try to take a picture,
you will NOT get a completely black image. That's because the telescope's
light-sensing chip itself produces electronic "noise" that is interpreted as faint
light. By SUBTRACTING OUT this noise from your image, you can bring out
faint details. To do this, you need to use an image-processing program that
allows you to subtract one image from another, that is, to subtract the "dark
field" image taken with an opaque filter from the image you want to enhance.
(Both images must have been taken with the same exposure time.) 

You may wish to look for the image processing sections of the 
activities posted to get some practice using various image 
processing techniques.

Step Six:	Implement your MicroObservatory Skills

The next step once you have become familiar with taking images, 
saving them, and opening them in an image processing program, 
is to apply them to a MicroObservatory activity (see the Activities Page, 
or develop one of your own).  You may use images you have taken, or take
 images from the directory or image archive that suit your needs.

Let other participants know your questions, problems, advice by posting a 
description of your experience learning to use MicroObservatory on the 
online Bulletin Board, in the Workshop 98 folder.

Good luck!

Activities Page