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Dashboard
Targets, integration time, sessions, equipment — at a glance. The starting point.
FITS archive ledger for astrophotographers
Know exactly how much you've imaged. And on what.
Photon Ledger reads every FITS header in your archive — headers only, never pixel data — and turns it into integration time, per target, per filter, per scope, per location, per session.
New here? Read the getting started guide — install and first scan in 5 minutes.
Analytics & archive intelligence for astrophotographers
Know your sky. Track every photon.
Know exactly how much you've imaged, and on what. Photon Ledger reads every FITS header in your archive — headers only, never pixel data — and turns years of imaging into integration time, equipment usage, and filter coverage you can actually act on.
New here? Read the getting started guide — install and first scan in 5 minutes.
Targets
142
unique objects
Sessions
604
imaging nights
Integration
1,662h
across all filters
Frames
69,618
indexed sub-frames
What one user catalogued in their first scan.
What's in the box
Six tools for the work you've already done
Every tab in the app maps to a question you've been asking your file system the hard way.
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Scan
Index 60,000+ frames in minutes. Headers only — your pixel data never moves.
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Targets
Drill into every object: filter breakdown, session count, total exposure, equipment used.
A
Activity
Group integration time by month, telescope, camera, target, filter, or location.
E
Equipment
Discover which scope you're actually using. Per-rig hours and per-filter histograms.
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Settings & data
SQLite by default. Your data, your machine.
What's in the box
Eight tools for the work you've already done
Every tab in the app maps to a question you've been asking your file system the hard way.
D
Dashboard
Targets, integration time, sessions, equipment — at a glance. The starting point.
S
Scan
Index 60,000+ frames in minutes. Headers only — your pixel data never moves.
T
Targets
Drill into every object: filter breakdown, session count, total exposure. Same target on two rigs is shown as two separate sets — different sensors don't stack.
A
Activity
Group integration time by month, telescope, camera, target, filter, or location.
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Equipment
Discover which scope you're actually using. Per-rig hours and per-filter histograms.
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Sessions
A timeline of every imaging night with location, equipment, target, and integration totals.
F
Folder Export
Pick a target + a rig + a destination. The app copies lights and matching DARK / BIAS / FLAT into a WBPP-ready tree.
C
CSV Export
Frames, Sessions, or Totals — with a light_dir column that points at the actual files. Paste into PixInsight or AstroBin.
What you get
Turn years of FITS files into answers
Six kinds of analysis from the headers you already have — no re-shoots, no spreadsheets, no pixel data ever read.
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Target Analytics
Total integration per object, filter mix, session count, and which rig you used. Shot the same target on two scopes? You see them as two sets — different sensors don't stack.
E
Equipment Analytics
Per-scope, per-camera, per-filter-wheel hours. The honest answer to whether your second telescope is earning its space.
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Filter Intelligence
Integration by filter across L R G B Ha OIII SII — per target and per session. See exactly where your SHO or LRGB data stands.
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Historical Archive Recovery
Point it at any drive. A 60,000-frame archive indexes in minutes — headers only, pixel data never moves — and forgotten projects resurface.
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Calibration-Aware Export
Pick a target, a rig, and a destination; the app copies lights plus matching DARK / BIAS / FLAT into a WBPP or Siril tree — and can copy just your accepted keepers. Plus CSV for sessions, per-frame, and AstroBin.
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Progress Reports
The New Additions Report totals frames and integration over any date range — by date added or by observation night — filterable by frame type. Know exactly what last month produced.
How it works
Three steps from folder to ledger
Pick a folder
Point Photon Ledger at the root of your imaging archive. Date-first or target-first layouts both work.
Scan
Headers are parsed in parallel. A typical 60,000-frame archive indexes in a few minutes.
Explore
Open Dashboard, Activity, Equipment, Targets — answer the questions you've never had answers to.
Free
Every feature, no license file.
No frame cap, no subscription, nothing to activate — CSV export, folder export, frame-quality culling, and integration goals are all in the download. If it saves you time on a cloudy night, you can buy me a coffee.
Free
Finally know what you've captured
Every feature is included — no frame cap, no license file, no subscription. CSV / AstroBin / folder export, frame-quality culling, integration goals, sky context, and the Tonight's Picks planner all ship in the download. If it saves you time on a cloudy night, you can buy me a coffee.
Roadmap
What's coming next
Everything above ships today. On the roadmap — not yet in the app — are guiding-log analysis, missing-filter detection, AI session summaries, and multi-computer sync. See the roadmap →
Stay in the loop
Get the v1.0 release email
One email when v1.0 ships, occasional release notes after. No drip campaigns, no upsells.
Stay in the loop
Release notes for new Photon Ledger versions
One short email per release — what shipped, what's coming next. No drip campaigns, no upsells.
Stay in the loop
Release notes for new Photon Ledger versions
One short email per release — what shipped, what's coming next. No drip campaigns, no upsells.
FAQ
Common questions
Does Photon Ledger upload my data anywhere?
No. Scanning is fully local — scan data, file paths, and images are never uploaded.
Does it read my image pixels?
No. Only FITS headers are parsed. Your image files are never opened past the header bytes.
What folder structures does the scanner understand?
Both date-first (archive/2024-08-13/Light/M81/*.fit) and target-first (archive/M81/2024-08-13/LIGHT/*.fits) layouts. Details.
What if my archive is on a NAS?
Works fine over SMB/NFS. The bottleneck is small-file metadata reads, not bandwidth. Expect roughly 200–500 frames/second on a typical 1 GbE NAS.