Creating a movie of Jupiter and its moons

These are the instructions for creating a movie of Jupiter’s moons from the images you received.

Proceedure

1. On your computer, launch the MicroObservatory Image processing software, and close any other programs. Download MicroObservatory image here.

2. From the MicroObservatory Image program, open each of your Jupiter images, one after the other.

3. From the Process menu, select Shift. This feature lets you move each of the images relative to each other, so that the Jupiter in each image line up on top of each other. Choose one of the images as a background image. Carefully align the other images, one by one, using the mouse and arrow keys.

4. When you are satisfied that all the Jupiters are in the same spot in each of your images, you are then ready to combine them into a “stack,” sort of like a flip-book. NOTE: You will need to make sure that you stack your images in time sequence order. They will be ordered correctly in your email, but in case the images get shuffled, use the file name, which should run lowest number to highest. For example, Jupiter05120807000 comes before Jupiter05120808000.

5. Go to the Process menu and select Stack / Convert Images to Stack.

6. To see your animation, select Process / Stack / Start Animation.

7. To save your movie as an "animated GIF" file, which can played in any web browser, select File / Save as Animated GIF.