Archives of Photographic PLates for Astronomical USE

Project description

The APPLAUSE project aims at digitizing photographic plates in the archives of Hamburg, Bamberg and Potsdam observatories. The plates are digitized with high-resolution flatbed scanners. In addition, the corresponding plate envelopes and observation logbooks are digitized, and further metadata are entered into the database. See this astroplate wiki page for descriptions of the workflow. Digitized plate images are processed and a catalogue of extracted sources with sky coordinates and photometry is published.

The project is not limited to the plate archives of the partner institutions, but will also integrate other archives, both national and international, that have been digitized already. Contracts with the Zentrum für Astronomie Heidelberg, the Landessternwarte Thüringen, the University of Jena and Tartu observatory (Estonia) have been signed. The goal of the project is not limited to extracting, calibrating and storing the data, but also to link them to other modern data sets from ground-based and spaceborne observatories, that is, to facilitate their use in modern research in astronomy. Therefore, the project was named Archives of Photographic PLates for Astronomical USE (APPLAUSE).

Three institutes were participating in the project phase I:

In February 2016, the project got an extension grant from DFG, to continue publishing plates, this time not only from the partnering institutes, but also from Observatories of Tautenburg and Jena, and other institutes. For project phase II the above mentioned observatories are included in the Data Release specific acknowledgements, if their plates are ingested.

The work has been carried out within the project "Digitalisierung astronomischer Fotoplatten und ihre Integration in das internationale Virtual Observatory", funded by the DFG

The project has been supported from work of many people.
The APPLAUSE project acknowledges hereby contributions from:

Name Institute Contribution
Regina v. Berlepsch  Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) Head of Library section, WFPDB contributor
Petra Boehm Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP)  Scanning + Metadata transcriptions, WFPDB contributor
Rainer Arlt Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP)  Scanning + Metadata transcriptions, WFPDB contributor
Sergei Schmalz Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP)  Scanning + Metadata transcriptions, APPLAUSE member, phase I

Norbert Jansen Dr. Remeis Sternwarte Bamberg, U Erlangen Scanning + Metadata transcription
Ingo Kreykenbohm & IT Team Dr. Remeis Sternwarte Bamberg, U Erlangen Technical Support

Jürgen Schmitt Hamburger Sternwarte Head of second DFG-Project
Anette Müller Hamburger Sternwarte Scanning + Meta-Data entry 2012-2019
Kersten Polzin Hamburger Sternwarte Scanning + Meta-Data entry 2012-2018
Sven Preller Hamburger Sternwarte Scanning 2012-2017
André Wulff Honorary Scanning + Meta-Data entry 2012-2018
Anke Vollersen Hamburger Sternwarte Scanning of observer motes 2013-2015
Nicolaus Wassiliere Trainee Time-Data entry 2 months 2014
Walter Fernandez Trainee Scanning 3 months 2014
Norbert Engelhardt Trainee + Honorary Scanning + Meta-Data entry 2014-2019
Helmut Gabriel Honorary Scanning 2015-2019
Anne Che-Bohnenstengel Honorary Metadata check and completion Since 2019
Horst-Dietrich Bohnenstengel Honorary Inventory Since 2019
Cristian Offen Free-Lancer Web Presentation of plate-archives
Carolina von Essen Honorary Translation into Spanish
José Nicolás González-Pérez Honorary Translation into Spanish
Heidi + Nemo J. Niemann Honorary Translation into Spanish
IT-Group  Hamburger Sternwarte Technical Support