Download SalsaJ from the European Hands On Universe Website. (Until further notice, please download version 1.4, not version 2.0, which does not yet have full photometry features.)
Launch SalsaJ and the 
, or a spreadsheet such as Excel, OpenOffice Spreadsheet or Numbers.
Download and unzip sample data for one of the extrasolar planets below:
- Advanced
Use the screencast below to learn how to use SalsaJ and a spreadsheet to make a light curve for a transiting exoplanet:
Below are the main steps demonstrated by the screencast:
- Open the first FITS file in SalsaJ
- Change the brightness as needed to view the image
- Open the finder chart (a .jpg file in the folder with the sample transit data) and compare to figure out which star is the one with a transit
- In SalsaJ got to Analyze -> Photometry Settings and enter your chosen star and sky radii
- Enter the radii in your spreadsheet (you might need them later in case you have to redo any part of this)
- Go to your spreadsheet and enter the name of the FITS file (or some unique part of it) in the Image Identifier column
- In the FITS image, go to Image -> Show Info and look for the UTSTART time. Enter this time in your spreadsheet.
- Got to Analyze -> Photometry, then click on the star with a transit. Enter the intensity value in your spreadsheet under Target Intensity.
- Choose another bright star in the image (you might even want to do several separately and add extra columns to your spreadsheet for this) and click on it. Enter the intensity value in your spreasheet under Comparison Intensity.
- The spreadsheet divides the Target Intensity by the Comparison Intensity to adjust for any atmospheric brightening or dimming, and plots a point on the graph.
- Repeat steps 6-9 for each of the remaining transit images. (You will have to adjust the brightness for each one, but the photometry radii will stay the same)
