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My Files

Document Version: 1.0 | Last Updated: March 2026

The My Files page lets you browse, search, preview, and download all your captured science images across every observation — organized by target, project, or date.

Overview

While the Observation Files page shows files from a single observation, My Files gives you a unified view of everything you've captured. This is the quickest way to find images of a particular target, review a night's work, or download data for a project.

Accessing My Files

Navigate to My Files from the main menu. The page opens in the By Target view by default.

Browse Modes

Three tabs at the top of the page control how files are organized:

By Target

Groups all files by target name. Each target shows:

  • Number of observations and total files
  • RA and Dec coordinates
  • Number of plate-solved files
  • Expandable list of observations, each containing a file grid

This is the most common view for finding all images of a specific object across multiple nights.

By Project

Groups files by the project they belong to. Expanding a project shows targets within it, and expanding a target shows individual observations. This view is useful when working on a specific research project that spans multiple targets.

By Date

Groups files by capture date, with the most recent dates first. Within each date, files are organized by target. This view is useful for reviewing a specific night's output.

Searching

The search field in the upper right filters results across all browse modes. Type a target name, and the list updates to show only matching entries. The search is case-insensitive and supports partial matches — typing "M3" will match M31, M33, and M3.

A summary line below the tabs shows the number of groups, observations, and files matching your current view and search.

File Grid

When you expand an observation, files appear in a card grid showing:

  • Thumbnail preview of each image
  • Filename and capture timestamp
  • Filter and exposure time
  • File size
  • Plate solve status — Solved (green), Failed (red), Queued, Solving, or Not Attempted
  • Calibration ready indicator — a green "Cal Ready" chip appears when matching dark and flat master frames are available for that file's camera, gain, binning, and filter

Click a thumbnail to open a full-size preview in a lightbox viewer.

Downloading

Individual Files

Each file card has a download button. If calibration masters are available, a dropdown offers:

  • Download Raw — the original FITS file as captured
  • Download Calibrated — dark-subtracted, flat-corrected, and bias-removed

Bulk Downloads

Each level of the hierarchy offers a download button:

  • Download All at the top of a target or project page downloads every file in that group
  • Download per observation using the download icon on each observation header

Bulk downloads run in parallel (up to 4 files at a time) with a progress dialog showing completion status. Downloads continue even if you navigate to other tabs.

Plate Solving

You can trigger plate solving from the file browser:

  • Individual files — click the solve icon on any unsolved file card
  • Bulk solve — the "Solve Unsolved" button on a target or observation queues all unsolved files at once

Plate solve status updates in real time via WebSocket — you'll see chips change from "Queued" to "Solving" to "Solved" without refreshing.

Drill-Down Navigation

A breadcrumb trail at the top tracks your navigation path. Clicking a target name opens a dedicated target page showing all observations of that target with full file grids, bulk download, and bulk plate-solve actions.

When more files exist than are shown inline, a "View All" link at the bottom of the expanded section takes you to the full target or project page.

File Details

Click the info icon on any file card to navigate to the file detail page, where you can see full FITS metadata, quality metrics, and coordinates. See Observation Files — FITS Metadata Display for details on what's shown.