ASPCS
 
Title: Preserving Astronomy's Photographic Legacy
Volume: 410 Year: 2009 View this Volume on ADS
Editors: Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Synopsis:
Astronomers interested in using archival photographic plates in their research and institutions charged with preserving and managing plate archives will be interested in this volume. Included are the results of a workshop held at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in November 2007. The workshop consisted of a series of debates and in-depth discussions on the topic of astronomical plates that culminated in recommendations for preserving astronomical photographic data.

This book has two main parts. The first is a detailed account of the PARI workshop, whose discussions covered a wide range of issues that must be considered by any institution involved in archiving plates. The resulting recommendations on preserving, cataloging, and making publicly available these irreplaceable photographic data are presented along with the progress to date on implementing them. The book’s second part presents the results of a census of astronomical plate in North America carried out in 2008. The number of plates and their current conditions and locations are provided as well as the contact information for those responsible for all the identified plate collections.

The main articles are supplemented with invited essays and other material that address such topics as the perspective of the International Astronomical Union on the importance of data archiving, PARI and its new Astronomical Photographic Data Archive, recent initiatives to digitize astronomical plates, the evaluation f two commercial scanners for plate digitization, an example of a research projects that is entirely dependent on the availability of the older photographic data, and a summary of some of the parallel initiatives on plate preservation underway in Europe.
ISBN: 978-1-58381-700-1 eISBN: 978-1-58381-701-8
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Paper Title Page Authors
Cover   
Volume 410 Cover Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Front Matter   
Volume 410 Front Matter 1 Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Chapter I   
Introduction to Preserving Astronomy’s Photographic Legacy 3 Osborn, W.; Robbins, L.
Data Archiving: The Perspective of the IAU 9 Griffin, R.E.
Making Astronomical Photographic Data Available: The European Perspective 15 Tsvetkov, M.
Chapter II   
The Workshop on a National Plan for Preserving Astronomical Photographic Data 33 Osborn, W.; Robbins, L.
The Astronomical Photographic Data Archive at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute 70 Castelaz, M.W.
Chapter III   
The Census of Astronomical Photographic Plates in North America 81 Robbins, L.; Osborn, W.
The Maria Mitchell Observatory and its Digitized Plate Collection 96 Strelnitski, V.
DASCH to Measure (and preserve) the Harvard Plates: Opening the ~100-year Time Domain Astronomy Window 101 Grindlay, J.; Tang, S.; Simcoe, R.; Laycock, S.; Los, E.; Mink, D.; Doane, A.; Champine, G.
Evaluating Commercial Scanners for Astronomical Image Digitization 111 Simcoe, R.J.
Evaluation of the Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED Film Scanner for Astronomical Research 128 Shelton, I.
Measuring the Earth’s Ozone on Historic Stellar Spectra 141 Griffin, R.E.
Chapter IV   
The Current State of Astronomical Plate Preservation and Plans for the Future 153 Osborn, W.; Robbins, L.
Making Archival Data Available for Research in the Next Decade and Beyond 160 Osborn, W.; Accomazzi, A.; Castelaz, M.; Cline, J.D.; Cudworth, K.; Griffin, R.E.; Grindlay, J.; Henden, A.; Templeton, M.; Rees, R.
Appendices   
Appendix A. Questionnaire for the Plate Census and the Cover Letter 169 Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Appendix B. Distribution List for the Census of Astronomical Plates 174 Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Appendix C. Brief Descriptions of North American Plate Collections 185 Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Appendix D. Recently Published Research Papers that Utilized Plates 196 Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Appendix E. Glossary of Acronyms 200 Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee
Back Matter   
Volume 410 Back Matter 203 Osborn, Wayne; Robbins, Lee