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Docs · Getting started

Getting started

You can be looking at your own integration time in about five minutes.

1. Install

Grab the installer for your OS from the download page. On macOS and Windows the installers are currently unsigned — see the warnings on the download page for how to launch the first time.

2. Run a scan

  1. Launch Photon Ledger.
  2. Click Scan.
  3. Choose the root folder of your archive — Photon Ledger walks the tree recursively.
  4. Press Start.

You'll see live progress: folders walked, frames discovered, frames committed, and any per-file errors. A typical archive of 60,000 frames on a local SSD indexes in 2–5 minutes.

What gets read. Photon Ledger reads only the FITS header (the first few kilobytes of each file). Pixel data is never touched. Your image files are not modified.

3. Read the dashboard

After scanning, the Dashboard shows totals at a glance: targets, sessions, integration hours, frame count, per-filter breakdown, and recent activity. Click any tile to drill into the underlying view.

4. Explore

  • Targets — per-object detail: total integration, filter mix, equipment used.
  • Activity — group integration time by month, telescope, target, filter, location.
  • Equipment — per-scope, per-camera hours.
  • Sessions — a timeline of every imaging night.

5. Rescan when you add data

Re-running a scan over the same root is incremental — Photon Ledger detects new and changed files and only writes the deltas. You can also point at additional roots; results merge into the same database.

Next steps

  • Folder schemas — which layouts the scanner recognises
  • FAQ — privacy, licensing, NAS performance
  • Pricing — if you outgrow the 5,000-frame Free cap