General Image/Data Management

[Tracy]

I can foresee accumulating over time a large quantity of data for processing.
How do you store and manage your data? I realize that the majority will use external hard drives, or even a NAS (network attached storage) for storage... but the main curiosity I have is how you keep track of what data you have. How do you know exactly where you stored it if using external media, or where it is located if stored on a NAS?

 

[OhNo]

Sadly, I am playing catch-up on the data storage front. Data retention should be one of the first things to get a handle on when starting AP. One thing you can do if you have organized data is improve the Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR). by stacking old data with new. I have seen some amazing images with years old data stacked with new data.

Some APers will even select their gear (cameras and scopes) so the different combinations of gear can be stacked together. Even mixing OSC data with mono data.

I plan of sitting down when the first snowflakes of fall start and going through terabytes of data and organizing it. I'll makes sure I have a haircut, nice and short (short enough I can't grab it to pull it out) and get it organized. On another note, NEVER delete data, been-there-dun-that! Data storage is cheap compared to losing that "once in a lifetime" shot.

I have a friend who shot a faint fuzzy. He showed me the stack of the first night images. Here in Canada we have very long nights around December 21..... You could hardly tell what was the target. He has way more discipline, conviction and patience than I do. After stacking 63 hrs of data he had one of those spectacular images you dream of taking and processing.