The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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A Century of Sky: First Data Release from DASCH

A Century of Sky: First Data Release from DASCH

The Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH) project has made the first of 12 planned data releases. DASCH is digitally scanning the ~500,000 glass plate images covering the full sky and taken between 1885 and 1992. The first data set includes about 45,000 plates within 15 degrees latitude of the north galactic pole. It also includes test fields elsewhere: around the quasar 3C 273, the Beehive open cluster (M44), Baade's Window near the galactic center, the field of the Kepler planet-hunting mission, and the Large Magellanic Cloud.

DASCH has developed the precision high-speed scanner and software pipeline for processing the digital images for each plate. Photometry is calibrated to within 0.1 magnitude, and astrometry and light curves of all resolved objects on each plate are derived down to the local limiting magnitude (typically 12-17).

Production scanning of up to 400 plates per day is proceeding in galactic coordinates, from the north galactic pole down to a latitude of 15 degrees, then the south galactic pole up to a latitude of -15 degrees, and finally the galactic plane.

The full scanning and final data release can be finished by 2016 depending on continued support. DASCH gratefully acknowledges support from NSF grants AST0407380 and AST0909073.

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AstroAI

Atomic and Molecular Physics, High Energy Astrophysics, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Radio and Geoastronomy, Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences, Theoretical Astrophysics, Harvard University Department of Astronomy, Science Education Department, Central Engineering, Director's Office, Chandra X-ray Center, Institute for Theoretical Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics, Institute for Theory and Computation

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DASCH (Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard)

High Energy Astrophysics

The Harvard Astronomical Glass Plate Collection is an archive of roughly 500,000 images of the sky preserved on glass photographic plates, the way professional astronomers often captured images in the era before the dominance of digital technology. These plates are more than historical curiosities: they provide over a century’s worth of data that can be used by contemporary astronomers to trace how objects in the night sky change over periods from years to decades.

For that reason, the DASCH (Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard) team are working to digitize the plates for digital storage and analysis. The process can also lead to new discoveries in old images, particularly of events that change over time, such as variable stars, novas, or black hole flares.

GMACS

Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Central Engineering

GMACS - Moderate Dispersion Optical Spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope is a powerful optical spectrograph that will unlock the power of the Giant Magellan Telescope for research ranging from the formation of stars and planets to cosmology.

For Scientists

Sensing the Dynamic Universe

High Energy Astrophysics, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences, Science Education Department

The Sensing the Dynamic Universe (SDU) project creates sonified videos exploring the multitude of celestial variables such as stars, supernovae, quasars, gamma ray bursts and more. We sonify lightcurves and spectra, making the astrophysics of variables and transients accessible to the general public, with particular attention to accessibility for those with visual and/or neurological differences.

SDU Website

Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

Optical and Infrared Astronomy, Chandra X-ray Center

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey continues its twenty-year legacy of wide-field optical/infrared imaging and spectroscopy, which has led astronomy into the era of large archives and data science. Harvard and Smithsonian are both full institutional members of the latest epoch of the survey, SDSS-V, which started observations in 2020.