Digital Preservation and Web Access to the Konkoly Observatory Schmidt Telescope Plate Archive

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): J.2.The digital preservation of the Konkoly Observatory Schmidt telescope plates, as well as the web access to the plate previews, aim for the preservation of this scientific heritage and the re-use of the astronomical photographic plates in time domain astronomy. The photographic plates used as detectors and information storage at astronomical observations with the Konkoly Schmidt telescope had been obtained in the period 1962–1996. The work on the digital plate preservation and web access started in 2001 with creation of an electronic plate catalogue and the digitization of selected representative plates as well as with interlinking of the publishing in Konkoly Observatory Information Bulletin on Variable Stars (IBVS) with the Wide-Field Plate Database (WFPDB) developing in Sofia. We describe the process of the digitization of the Konkoly Schmidt telescope plates.This work is supported by the bilateral project between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and partially by the grants BG NSF DO-02-273 and BG NSF DO-02-275

Software Tools for Digitization of Astronomical Photographic Plates

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): J.2.In this paper we present tools for helping the process of digitization of astronomical photographic plates. The requirements of Virtual Observatory presume that any FITS file, which contains a digital image, has to be equipped with a complete header. Wide-Field Plate Database (WFPDB) offers most of the meta-data needed for the creation of FITS header. The header2011 software gives the user an appropriate tool for connecting WFPDB catalogues to digitized plate images. The use of modern scanners sometimes imposes conversion of files from the inner format of the scanner (or driver) into FITS format. The tif2fits software converts VueScan row-tiff format to FITS and also separates plate image and wedge image in case of scanning with grayscale wedge.This work is supported by the German DFG grant STE: 710/6-1/20.11.2009 and partially by the grants of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, Science and Youth DO-02-273/275/2009

Photographic Plate Libraries at European Astronomical Observatories

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): J.2.This paper presents the efforts to organize photographic plate libraries at European astronomical observatories and institutions. The Wide-Field Plate Database project, launched in 1991, has been collecting data about the plates, including plate archives, plate index catalogue data extracted from the logbooks, and digitized plate images. Developing further the WFPDB project, we intend to complete the high-resolution digitization of the plates (in standardized FITS file format) and a suitable digitalization of the catalogues and logbooks (in JPEG and TIFF), with flatbed scanners, and also to organize links to the relevant scientific research papers. At present about 250000 plates have been digitized and await implementation of online access. The main idea is to build an Astro-Multimedia Library, based on the latest methods of Computer Science, in particular on Multiresolution Analysis techniques, which allow for efficient representation of image scans at different resolutions.This work is supported by the BG NSF DO-02-273 and BG NSF DO-02-275 grants

Brashear Plate Catalogues in the Wide-Field Plate Database

We present the work of reduction and inclusion of the Brashear Plate Catalogues in the Wide-Field Plate Database (WFPDB). About 5000 plates were obtained with the Brashear astrograph of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory located in Mitaka in the period 1943-1962. The astrograph was equipped with two cameras: 16 cm Zeiss Tessar and 20 cm Petzval Triplet. The observing programme included mostly asteroids and comets. We divided the Brashear plates in two catalogues accordingly the both used cameras, to which were assigned the following WFPDB identifiers respectively TOK016 and TOK020. Analysis of the catalogues using the available data is present. Comparison of the original catalogues with the files obtained from the scanned in table form catalogues and following image processing is present too

The Last Plate Observations with Rozhen Observatory Schmidt Telescope

We present the last 549 plate observations with the 50/70/172 cm Schmidt telescope of Rozhen Observatory obtained in the period 1994 - 1998. These plate observations were carried out after the appearance of the first version of the Rozhen Schmidt telescope plate catalogue (see Mutafov et al. 1994). Statistics and analysis of these last plate observations are done

Hough Transform Approach to Identification of Flare Stars in Multi-exposure Plate Images

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): I.2.8 , I.2.10, I.5.1, J.2.The paper discusses the progress in the automation of the detection of flare stars through astronomical observations with plates obtained by the multi-exposure “chain” method. In spite of the fact that the astronomical plate observations are considered obsolete in modern astronomy, the computer processing of these images is an actual problem, due to the considerable number of wide-field plates in our country, in Europe and throughout the world. The solution of the problem is implemented in a sequence of three stages: (i) detection of the form of the chains, (ii) location of the chains in the input plate image and (iii) detection of chains representing “flare stars”. The paper is focused on the second stage, the implementation of which requires the use of Hough transform (HT). A theoretical and experimental analysis of the suggested approach connected with HT is presented. The “bottlenecks” in the development are discussed on the basis of a comparative analysis with a competitive approach - the “cumulative” statistic approach to chains in the given image. At the end, a combined approach is offered, uniting the various advantages, but again based on HT. Some experimental results and illustrations are presented. The perspectives for future work, connected with an implementation of a whole software system designed to solve the problem, are described.This work is supported by Grant No DO-02-275/2008 of the National Science Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, Youth and Science to the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IICT-BAS)

On some Bamberg wide-field plate catalogues recently incorporated into WFPDB

The Dr. Remeis-Sternwarte (Bamberg Observatory) hosts about 40000 astronomical photographic plates taken from the early 20th century to mid of the 1970th. In an ongoing long-term project the Bamberg wide-field plate catalogues are being incorporated into the Wide-Field Plate Database (WFPDB). Here, we describe the recent integration of seven Bamberg catalogues in the framework of a project to digitize and preserve the plates funded by the German Science Foundation. These catalogues include information about 8400 plates obtained in the period 1931 – 1963 with three Tessar cameras (WFPDB identifiers BAM003A, BAM003B and BAM009A), a Xenon camera (BAM006), a Vierlinser camera (BAM008), an Erno- star camera (BAM009B), and a Dogmar camera (BAM011). The plate observations aimed at investigations of variable stars in the Northern sky. Some of the cameras were first mounted on an astrograph in Bamberg in preparation and testing of the Bamberg large-scale project for variable star research in the Southern sky in the period 1963 – 1976. Currently information on 31 Bamberg plate archives containing 34200 plates from the Bamberg Northern- and Southern Sky Survey can be found in the WFPDB

Potsdam Library of Astronomical Photographic Plates

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): J.2.We present the Potsdam photographic plate library at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam. It includes plate archives, data from plate index catalogues and extracts from astronomical logbooks, as well as digitized plate images and interfaces for accessing all the available information. The plate index catalogues and the digitized images of the Potsdam astronomical photographic plates are prepared according to the standards of the Wide-Field Plate Database and German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory. The high-resolution digitization of the plates (in standardized FITS file format), the low-resolution plate previews (in TIFF and JPEG file format), as well as suitable digitization of the catalogues, logbooks, and relevant scientific research papers (in JPEG and TIFF) are made using commercial flatbed scanners.This work is supported by the bilateral project STE 710/6-1, 2009-11-20, between BAS/DFG, and partially by BG NSF DO-02-273 and DO-02-275 grants