Previous Article
Next Article
Table of Contents

Save the Bits: the First Hundred Days (1Mar94)
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 37, 1 March 1994)

The "Save the Bits" archive has been quietly taping raw CCD data on
Kitt Peak since its auspicious "first byte" on Moon Day (20 July)
1993.  Originally restricted to KPNO optical CCD images taken with ICE
(the IRAF Control Environment), the archive now also includes NSO CCD
images from the nighttime program at the McMath telescope.  As we go to
press, images from the KPNO infrared instruments are about to be added
to the archive datastream via an update to the WildFIRE software.

Fully automatic operation of the archive queue began in early October.
During the intervening time (one hundred days) more than 45,000 images
have been archived, amounting to 120 Gbytes of data, about half of
which are calibration frames.  We are in the process of converting the
July-September images into the standard format soon, substantially
increasing the quoted totals.

Observers should not rely on the archive for routine data backup.
Personal attention by each observer to safe taping practices is the
only true way to protect your data; see the following article for a
reminder.

Rob Seaman, Caty Pilachowski

Previous Article
Next Article
Table of Contents