How Our New System Makes Downloading Easier
With the world’s largest archive of astrophotography images, it’s fair to say downloading is a key aspect of your Telescope Live experience. But we understand that it has been a frustrating experience so far – especially the cumbersome process of downloading FITS images.
That’s why we’ve been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make the process quicker and easier for our users. In this post, we’ll discuss the improvements in a little more detail.
Giving you simplicity and speed
When it comes to downloading images, the main requirements are simplicity and speed.
In the past, however, our system has found it difficult to automatically provide download packages when there are lots of images being downloaded.
To solve this, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort rewriting our backend download system to offer you a much-improved download experience that’s simple and speedy for both one-click observations and bundles. Watch the video below or read on to find out more…
One click observations
To download One-Click Observations that you’ve already grabbed, you can now simply click ‘download FITS images’. You’ll get a pop up informing you how many images you’re downloading, after which you can press ‘download’ to start the download immediately.
That’s all well and good. But in the past, it was especially difficult to download multiple observations at once. In this case, you can switch from the traditional tile view to the table view using the icons at the right-hand side of the interface.
You can then filter by ‘grabbed’ to show images that are ready to download. Then filter by other criteria to find the images you’re looking for. Select the ones you want by ticking boxes, or even tick the top box to select them all.
What about large downloads?
Here’s where we’ve really improved things for you. If you do select a lot of observations, you could end up with a download comprising 100+ FITS images.
Naturally, that will take a few minutes to complete. But you don’t have to wait around on the same page. Instead, our new system will create a download package in the backend, so you can continue with your work. When the download is complete, you’ll get an email straight to your inbox to say it’s ready.
As before, our download manager is on hand if you want to check your download progress. Here, you’ll also get the option to download files again or share links to your previous downloads.
Don’t forget bundles!
Our observation bundles are a popular option because they provide the best value per image while allowing you to improve astrophotography pictures using multiple observations with the same parameters.
But in the past, it was easier said than done. To download a bundle, you previously had to navigate to your already grabbed images, then download each observation – one by one.
Now, you can do it in one click. Simply find the bundle you have grabbed, then click ‘download bundle’. As previously mentioned, you’ll get a pop up confirming the number of FITS images that will be downloaded. You can then click ‘download now’ to download them immediately – or carry on working until you get a confirmation email if it’s a particularly large download.
Let us know what you think!
At Telescope Live, we’re always working hard to improve the user experience for our members. We hope you find our new download system much easier than before.
But if you have any questions or suggestions, remember that we’re always on hand via our online web chat. Click the web chat icon in the bottom right of your screen and we’ll be happy to answer your questions or take your feedback on board.