STSCI Digitized Sky Survey Instructions:
First, you enter the name of your object in the name resolver near the top, and click on Get Coordinates. The page will reload, and the coordinates (RA and DEC) will appear below.
Next, scroll down to where it says file format and select GIF.
Leave the rest as the default and click on Retrieve Image. After a few seconds, your object will appear! Pretty, isn't it?
Save the image to disk if you want, and print it.
Next, we will find different kinds
of pictures of this object.
ESO Digitized Sky Survey Instructions:
First, you enter the name of your object in the Object Name field of the Query Form.
Next, scroll down to where it says Output Format and select Display as GIF File.
Leave the rest as the default and click on Retrieve Image. After a few seconds, your object will appear! Pretty, isn't it?
Save the image to disk if you want, or
just try to remember what it looks like. Next, we will find different kinds
of pictures of this object.
Just type the name of your object (NGC **** is best) where it says coordiantes or source, and select all of the six wavelength regimes from the table below. You may want to make sure all of the images are shown at the same scale. To do this, select from the list of possible image sizes. Try 1o or 3o. Then click on Submit to retrieve the images.
A little while later (it takes a bit to process your request), six images will appear. They might look very different, but each is of the same object viewed in a different kind of EM radiation. One thing to keep in mind is that the pixel size is different for the different images; the x-ray image has 2o pixels, the optical image has 1.7 arcesond pixels.
A little while later, it will give you a table of all the images of your object it found in the HST archive. There may be very many images, but lots of them are calibration images. Look under Target Name to see which images are actually interesting. For example, if you are doing M1, then look for "crab nebula" or "pulsar".
This archive exists for professional astronomers to download Hubble data, but you have to be registered with NASA to do this. We can preview the images, however. Click on the Target Name of the object you wish to preview. A new window comes up. Click on Get Preview, and the image will load.
Warning: Sometimes these images are empty, or bad quality. If this happens, try one of the other images. Especially try different wavelengths. You should be able to find a good image. Note especially the improved quality of the HST image over the DSS image.