[vsnet-chat 1631] Re: plate archives

["Martha Hazen" <mhazen@cfa.harvard.edu>]

In response to Arne:

Yes, by modern standards, most of the almost half million plates
at the Harvard College Observatory are of "poor" quality.  Many 
have non-circular images, certainly.  (I'm not sure what Arne 
means by "poor development.")  But some of the plates do go 
fairly deep - at least enough for Leavitt to find the period-
luminosity relation for Cepheids in the SMC, for example, or for 
the discovery of the Sculptor dwarf galaxy.  I think the value of 
the world's plate collections cannot be so lightly dismissed.

The main stumbling block to scanning a portion of the Harvard plate
collection at Flagstaff was the expense of secure packing and 
transport.  Since, presumably, the better or more valuable plates 
would be the ones sent, even a small amount of breakage would be 
undesirable.  It is my understanding that the people in charge of 
other archives feel similarly.  Thus, museum-type movers would have 
to be used, and they are quite expensive.

We do feel, however, that much could be gained by digitizing of many 
of the better plates (though choosing the "better" ones out of such 
a vast collection is, in itself, terribly time-consuming).

It seems quite possible that some attempt may be made in the future 
to digitize at least part of Harvard's collection.

Martha L. Hazen, Curator of Astronomical Photographs
Harvard College Observatory

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