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DSS Image Manager

DSS Image Manager allows you to view and delete images that you have downloaded from one of the online Digitized Sky Surveys. The window is organized into 2 panes: the left one lists each of the image files and the right pane shows a preview of the selected image. If a file is found among the DSS images whose name cannot be parsed, an error message is shown and the process is stopped. You should close the DSS Image Manager, remove the offending file from the \DSSCache folder and re-open the DSS Image Manager.

Although the Manager is multi-threaded, it takes time to load information on all images. You can stop the loading process by clicking Stop [] if you wish. Once images are loaded or you have stopped the loading process, you can click Close [] to exit the Manager.

Image File List

Each entry in the image file list shows a Desig (Object Designation if possible), the RA and Decl (Right Ascension & Declination referred to J2000.0) of the center of the image, Size in arcminutes of the square image and the Survey from which the image was taken. A description of the DSS servers and surveys appears in the appendix. The final column shows the actual File name of the image as it appears on your local storage drive. When you select an image in the image file list, the associated image is loaded and displayed in the right pane. Larger images may produce a slight delay while loading and displaying, while smaller images are displayed instantly.

Note that you can also view the list of images in Windows File Explorer. Go to the Documents folder of your installation and open the DSSCache subfolder. Image file are stored here. You can view files names, dates of download and sizes of files in File Explorer. If you have enabled view of each file's Comments column in File Explorer, you can view an object designation for which the image was downloaded.

Sorting the files

Clicking in the title bar of one of the columns sorts the data by that column; clicking again in the same column toggles the sort order between ascending and descending order. You can turn off sorting in a column by Ctrl-clicking the column's title bar. You can sort by multiple columns by Shift-clicking.

Deleting files

You can delete one or more files at a time using Delete - either by clicking the Delete button [] on the toolbar or by pressing the Del key on your keyboard. Click an image file (or select multiple files using the standard Windows Shift-click and Ctrl-click techniques) and select Delete. You must confirm whether you wish to delete the file(s).

You can also delete all image files at once. Select the Delete All [] button on the toolbar and confirm that you want to delete all image files.

Note:

DSS images may be saved in a Backup operation, and restored using the Restore operation.