Good points James but I think the gallery and the section archive serve different purposes and it would be difficult, and probably not very effective, to combine the two. The gallery is a great way to share images with members and others but the section archive is our permanent record of observations. It may be frustrating that each section has a different way of naming files but that is the world as it is and it really isn’t that difficult to follow the filenaming rules when submitting images.
Given the amount of effort required to make the observation, both in terms of obtaining the data and processing it, it surprises me that even some of the world’s best comet imagers can’t spend a few more minutes to add key details like equipment, exposure time, duration, orientation and field-of-view. I know that analysts can often derive these by plate-solving but sometimes that is not possible and they have more than enough to do anyway. Also, C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) has demonstrated again how dynamic comet tails are on multiple scales so accurate information is critical to making the best use of images.
I’m very grateful for all of the images that the section receives but a little more work on behalf of the observer would make many of them much more valuable in the long term.
Nick.