J.D. Cline 1 ,T. Barker 1 , M. W. Castelaz 1 1 Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute

1. The Astronomical Photographic Data Archive J.D. Cline1,T. Barker1, M. W. Castelaz1 1Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute 215th Meeting of the American Astronomical SocietySession 469.07 Wednesday, January 6, 2010 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 Not-for-profit foundation www.pari.edu 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. 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. Major Collections 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: • Rescue and Preserve Collections • Archive Collections • Digitize Collections The Harvard Meteor Survey, consisting of 40,000 molded films are safely archived in easily accessible containers. The main archive area. The number of astronomical photographic plates stored in this area totals more than 50,000 Digitizing • GAMMA II STScI Microdensitometer is now located in APDA at PARI. • APDA 64-bit 16 GB RAM computer • High resolution transmission scanner. • 107 TB storage array available for images The APDA office is located adjacent to the main archive area. The office is fully equipped with scanners, computers, and Internet access. • 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 Summary Barry Lasker Scanning Lab. GAMMA II, above, was used to scan and build the Hubble Space Telescope Guide Star Catalog and Digital Sky Survey. 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. Contact Information Michael Castelaz Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute mcastelaz@pari.edu One PARI Drive828-966-4207 Rosman, NC 28772