In this section you will find information about the software the Faulkes Telescope Project recommend for viewing and analysing FITS and JPEG data obtained from the Faulkes Telescopes.

Description: SalsaJ is a software package dedicated to image handling and analysis in the classroom. It is particularly adapted to professional astronomy images. It is written in Java and can be used on several platforms for which there is a Java environment. It is based on ImageJ, a free Java software created by Wayne Rasband (Reseach Service Branch, National Institute of Mental health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA).

Cost: Free

Salsa-J website: http://www.euhou.net/

Available from: EUHoU

SalsaJ is used in a number of our imaging projects. You will find guides on how to SalsaJ in these projects under basic and advanced colour imaging.

Align RGB plugin:

As part of the SalsaJ development a plugin has been written for aligning 3 colour frames, when using SalsaJ with the Astronomical Imaging project. Once you have downloaded the plugin, unzip the file to get a file with the ending ".class". This must be put in the plugins folder of your SalsaJ directory. Then restart SalsaJ.

Download the plugin

Description: SAO/DS9 is a data visualisation and analysis package. It has both simple and advanced features. At its most simple you could use the software to display FITS files obtained from the telescopes, and also do some simple processing and analysis of the data. Some functions allow the exporting of data into other programmes such as Excel for additional analysis.

Cost: Free

SAO/DS9 website: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/

Available from: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/ - Download from the first section of links on the page, by clicking on your operating system name.

We have written the following guides for SAO/DS9 that you might find useful, and included some FITS data files to practise using SAO/DS9 with :

Description: Iris is both image viewing and processing software. It is not easy to use for a beginner, but is very useful for users of all abilities to view FITS files and convert them to other formats.

Cost: Free

Iris website: http://www.astrosurf.org/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

Description: Astrometrica is primarily designed for detecting and measuring the positions of asteroids. This is the only program we recommend to use for FT projects involving asteroids.

Cost: Euro 25 (FREE for FT users - contact us for details)

Astrometrica website: http://www.astrometrica.at

Available from: http://www.astrometrica.at

Astrometrica is used in the asteroids project . You will find guides on how to download, install and use Astrometrica by following the project link.