J.D. Cline1,T. Barker1, M. W. Castelaz1
1Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
The Astronomical Photographic Data Archive
Not-for-profit foundation
215th Meeting of the American Astronomical SocietySession 469.07 Wednesday, January 6, 2010
www.pari.edu
ACCESS• Preliminary catalogues of plates are available online:
• Visits are encouraged. APDA has light tables, and high resolution scanners
• Requests for limited scanning of plates can be accommodated
• Move towards compatibility with NVO, SIMBAD
• APDA 64-bit 16 GB RAM computer
• High resolution transmission scanner.
• 107 TB storage array available for images
MAJOR COLLECTIONS
DIGITIZING
INTRODUCTION• About 2 Million Photographic plates from late 19th
Century to about 1990 are historic and valuable and in danger of being lost.
• Plates have been destroyed, neglected, inaccessible.• Are time-domain resources for time-domain astronomy.• Preserve these unique time-domain resources and make
them available to scientists, researchers, and historians.
PURPOSE OF APDA• Astronomical photographic data constitute an
enormously important and, for the large part, unrepeatable resource for astronomical research.
• APDA is essential both for the health of astronomical science and for credibility of the current generation of astronomers as guardians of its unique heritage.
• The three functions of APDA are: 1. Rescue and Preserve Collections2. Archive Collections3. Digitize Collections
APDA is located on the lower floor of a 10,000 sq. ft. building near the center of the 200-acre PARI campus.
The arrow in above figure points to the building.
APDA has become the home to extremely important archived data that might not otherwise survive or be accessible. More collections are anticipated, and expansion to 10,000 square feet of floor space is possible. Even though the collections will be preserved, the realization that the 21st century astronomy demands an online, virtual observatory workplace is motivation for APDA to proceed with digitization of all plates in all stored collections. To this end, APDA plans to re-calibrate the GAMMA I machine for this purpose, and begin the precise digitization process. The future of APDA depends on the foresight of astronomers who understand the importance of preserving their science and heritage.
SUMMARY
• GAMMA II STScI Microdensitometer is now located in APDA at PARI.
Collection Telescope Number of Plates Years
Cerro Tololo Observatory
24-inch f/3.5 Curtis Schmidt
6,500 direct and objective prism plates
1968-1986
University of Michigan
37.5-inch f/19 reflector
20,000 spectra plates
1911-1963
Warner Swasey Observatory
24/36-inch f/3.5Burrell Schmidt
22,000 direct andobjective prism plates
1944-1992
Prairie Meteor Network
16 wide-field Metrogen f/6.3 150-mm f.l. cameras
11,000 films
1964-1975
United States Naval Observatory
Astrograph 4,500 plates
1975-1991
Harvard Meteor Project
Two 12-inch f/0.8 Baker Superschmidts
30,000 molded films 1953-1968
Barry Lasker Scanning Lab. GAMMA II, above, was used to scan and build the Hubble Space Telescope Guide Star
Catalog and Digital Sky Survey.
Contact Information
Michael Castelaz Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute [email protected] One PARI Drive828-966-4207 Rosman, NC 28772
The Harvard Meteor Survey, consisting of 40,000 molded films are safely archived in easily accessible containers.
The APDA office is located adjacent to the main archive area. The office is fully equipped with
scanners, computers, and Internet access.
The main archive area. The number of astronomical photographic plates stored in this area totals more than 50,000
Lambda Centaurus Nebula
June 22/23, 1976
160 minute exposure
098-04 emulsion
D-19 developer
CTIO 0.9-m f/3.5 Schmidt Telescope