Immortalizing Old Observation notes

[MarsG76]

Hello fellow nocturnal dwellers...

Recently I found my old notes from when I was in my early teenage years using a 60mm TASCO refractor. I loved that scope, regret selling it to someone... oops side tracked...

I was thinking that I might scan all of the books into PDF files to immortalize my notes... a personal little nostalgic project.

Anyone done that?

 

[ronin]

Oddly but I suspect that you will find digital media to be more temporary then written/material media. It is just to easy to lose a file, get it corrupted, even throw it when the PC update occurs.

I know I have lost photo's I took on assoreted digital cameras, where as the old film/prints from Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Uluru etc from '95 I can go get hold of easily. The real old film pictures I took at Uni 40+ years ago I can find.

What I suspect is that it becomes just "another file" on the PC. If not doing already you may need to set up a sort of personel history folder and maintain that as a bit of you own history, also get a back up perfromed at regular intervals.

For anything I want to keep I have found that I generate the file/folder and then I copy it to a memory stick, and file the memory stick. Not foolproof but gives me a little hope. Mind you no doubt someone will find something "bettr" then a USB stick and the storage problem reoccurs.

How many pages? PDF the lot, print off and make a book out of them. Think I made a book at school back in the stone age, not difficult and it would be all yours.

[rockystar]

use OneDrive, GoogleDrive or DropBox (others probably available) linked up to a folder on your PC, this way they are stored in the cloud and easily transferred to another PC.

I think it's a good idea if well organised.

[MarsG76]

2 hours ago, ronin said:

Oddly but I suspect that you will find digital media to be more temporary then written/material media. It is just to easy to lose a file, get it corrupted, even throw it when the PC update occurs.

I know I have lost photo's I took on assoreted digital cameras, where as the old film/prints from Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Uluru etc from '95 I can go get hold of easily. The real old film pictures I took at Uni 40+ years ago I can find.

What I suspect is that it becomes just "another file" on the PC. If not doing already you may need to set up a sort of personel history folder and maintain that as a bit of you own history, also get a back up perfromed at regular intervals.

For anything I want to keep I have found that I generate the file/folder and then I copy it to a memory stick, and file the memory stick. Not foolproof but gives me a little hope. Mind you no doubt someone will find something "bettr" then a USB stick and the storage problem reoccurs.

How many pages? PDF the lot, print off and make a book out of them. Think I made a book at school back in the stone age, not difficult and it would be all yours.

 

2 hours ago, rockystar said:

use OneDrive, GoogleDrive or DropBox (others probably available) linked up to a folder on your PC, this way they are stored in the cloud and easily transferred to another PC.

I think it's a good idea if well organised.

Of course files can be corrupt, but I figure that I'll have the originals just in case the PDF get corrupt or lost.

I was going to have a backup of the file in the cloud...

[MarsG76]

3 hours ago, ronin said:

PDF the lot, print off and make a book out of them.

Making a book out of old scanned notes is actually a cool idea in a nerdy reminiscing kind of way... might do it.... good idea, I like it.

[David Smith]

I have many years of hand written notes that I would like to scan but the task is rather large now and I just don't have the time.

[Moonshane]

These days camera phones are so good that I'd use that to photograph each page and as they automatically upload to Flickr I'd organise them there.I tend to agree though that I am more likely to look at a book than online resources as it's just easier.

[timwetherell]

Yep me too! I found my old notes from the 70s at my mother's house and digitised them to have a backup copy. Fascinating for a number of reasons -  (1) double stars like castor that have changed over the past 40 years and perhaps most interesting, (2) how much more I can see now with a 60mm refractor and my older eyes than I saw as a young man with perfect vision. Just goes to show how observing is a learned skill. 

[MarsG76]

18 hours ago, David Smith said:

I have many years of hand written notes that I would like to scan but the task is rather large now and I just don't have the time.

The way I see it is that it's not a race, take your time... I'll take my time doing the books since it's meant to be relaxation and a pleasure... it doesn't matter how long it takes, they have already been laying around for 20 years, what's another few months or even year(s)?

[MarsG76]

18 hours ago, Moonshane said:

These days camera phones are so good that I'd use that to photograph each page and as they automatically upload to Flickr I'd organise them there.I tend to agree though that I am more likely to look at a book than online resources as it's just easier.

I'm old fashioned... I like the use of a scanner... but a book is a tempting prospect.