What AstroBin is all about

How is this different from any other image-sharing websites?

AstroBin provides a number of features that are tailored specifically to astrophotography. Here's a quick rundown of the main ones:

• Dedication to data

  On a general-purpose image sharing site, you would upload your image and be done with it.

  AstroBin, instead, has a user interface specifically designed to enable you to input all the technical data of your image.

  AstroBin will autocomplete your input using a vast database: everything from telescopes, CCDs, and filters to astronomical objects in many catalogs will show in popup dialogs for easy selection when you start typing their names.

• Data is strongly interconnected

  Have you ever wanted to see how your next image is going to look like? On AstroBin, you can search for all images of a certain target that were taken with a certain telescope and a certain CCD or camera. Or a certain filter. How about all the images between 6 and 8 hours of integration? Or with a certain Moon phase? You can do that.

  AstroBin can help you with your next telescope or camera purchase, by searching for gear combinations owned by other users. For instance, you could search for all images taken with a Canon 5D and an apochromatic refractor, or an SBIG ST-8300 with any Ritchey-Chretien telescope.

• All the data at a glance

  Each image on AstroBin can be annotated with all the technical details about its acquisition. Telescopes involved, cameras, mounts, filters, everything is visible at a glance in the Technical Card. Even the Moon age at the time of the acquisition is displayed.

• More than just an image

  AstroBin will do more than just host a copy of your image: when you upload a photograph, a histogram and a black & white inverted, enhanced version of the image will be generated on the fly, so it's easier to spot faint nebulosity regions or spiral arms.

  Images will also be plate solved, and an annotated version will appear on the site. AstroBin will know what are the astronomical objects in your image without you telling.

• Protection from theft with automatic watermarking

  AstroBin's upload wizard will offer you to watermark your image with the text of your choosing.

• AstroBin supports multiple image revisions

  Don't tell me you have never gone back to revise the processing of an image after you had published it. AstroBin embraces this concept and lets you publish several revisions of the same image easily and intuitively.

• AstroBin is social

  On AstroBin you can message other astrophotographers, follow them, and be notified when they post new images or revisions.

As you have undoubtedly realized by now, AstroBin is way more than an image hosting service. It's what the Astrophotography community has needed for a long time. For years, I have seen amazing images scattered all over the Internet: general-purpose image hosting sites, forums, personal websites, and even temporary places. Some of those images contain data that is too precious to go wasted in a sea of chaos.

AstroBin comes to the rescue to provide a home and a central hub for astrophotographers all over the world.