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Digitizing a Century of Astronomical Images

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A high-speed scanner is being used to create a digital database of more than 500,000 glass photonegatives.

Thomas L. Vogelsong and David W. Gardner, Salvador Imaging Inc., Robert J. Simcoe, Harvard College Observatory, and Jonathan E. Grindlay, Harvard University

From the early 1880s to the late 1980s, observers from Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., took more than 500,000 astronomical images of the night sky from Harvard telescopes around the world. Most of that collection is stored at Harvard in the form of 8 × 10-in. glass photonegatives. The plate collection represents at least 25 percent of the total cataloged and stored astrophotographs in the world and is by far the largest collection of its type. It contains, for example, a photo taken of Halley’s Comet in 1910 (Figure 1). However, in its current analog form, the collection...Read full article

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    Published: March 2007
    Glossary
    astronomy
    The scientific observation of celestial radiation that has reached the vicinity of Earth, and the interpretation of these observations to determine the characteristics of the extraterrestrial bodies and phenomena that have emitted the radiation.
    photonics
    The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
    astronomical imagesastronomyBasic ScienceFeaturesglass photonegativesHarvard College Observatoryphotonicstelescopes

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