To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to the HDAP scans. For details, see the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain dedication. Of course, you should still give proper credit when using this data as required by good scientific practice.
![[CC0]](/static/img/cc0.png)
For a list of all services and tables belonging to this service's resource, see Information on resource 'HDAP -- Heidelberg Digitized Astronomical Plates'
The scanning of the plate archive at Landessternwarte Heidelberg was initiated by Holger Mandel and Kurt Birkle in 2006 and was funded by the Klaus-Tschira-Foundation. Almost all usable direct plates in the archives are now scanned, and the funded phase of the project is over. Only minor additions are expected any more.
The plate archive consists of plates from many different sources. The following table gives an overview of the instruments at which the plates were taken:
| plate letter | name | eff. focal length [mm] | aperture ratio | scale [as/mm] | plate size | latitude | longitude | height |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Calar Alto Schmidt telescope | 2400 | f/3 | 86 | 24x24cm | 37.22417 N | +2.5375 W | 2168 m |
| B | Königstuhl Bruce telescope | 2000 | f/5 | 103 | 24x30cm or 30x30cm | 49.39861 N | -8.72083 E | 560 m |
| C | 1.23m in Casseg. focus with corrector | 9857 | f/8 | 20.9 | 24x24cm | 37.22361 N | +2.5461 W | 2138 m |
| D | 72cm Walz- Reflektor | 2815 | f/3.9 | 73.3 | 13x18cm or 9x12cm | 49.39861 N | -8.72083 E | 560 m |
| E | 2.2m in Cassegrain focus with corrector | 17037 | f/7.744 | 12.1 | 20x25cm (8x10in) or 24x24 cm | 37.22361 N | +2.5461 W | 2138 m |
| F | 3.5m in primary focus with 3-lens corrector | 13761 | f/3.93 | 15 | 20x25cm (8x10in) | 37.22361 N | +2.5461 W | 2138 m |
| F | 3.5m in primary focus with 2-lens corrector | 12195 | f/3.48 | 16.9 | 12.5x20 (5x8in) | 37.22361 N | +2.5461 W | 2138 m |
| H | 2.2m MPG ESO/La Silla | 17679 | f/8 | 12 | 20x25cm | -29.257225 S | +70.734595 W | 2335 m |
| G | Wolf's Doppel- astrograph (15cm) on Königstuhl (7/1897-1909) | 900mm | f/6 | 230 | 13x18cm or 9x12cm | +49.39861 N | -8.72083 E | 560m |
| G | Wolf's Doppel- astrograph (15cm) in Märzgasse (1887-7/1897) | 900mm | f/6 | 230 | 13x18cm or 9x12cm | +49.60988 N | -8.69387 E | 110m |
Unfortunately, instrument data on the 2.2m MPG telescope on La Silla are lost. If anyone can help out, please contact gavo@ari.uni-heidelberg.de.
The Observation logs of the more ancient observations are available from UB Heidelberg.
The project was discussed on a poster shown at the 2007 meeting of the Astronomische Gesellschaft in Würzburg.
A slightly more technical article appeared in the proceedings of the 2014 Astroplate conference.
This is what the photographic plates these scans were prepared from look like --
The archive of plates from Wolf's eight-inch telescope --
The Bruce archive -- the rack's bend indicates the plates are kept beneath an observatory dome --
The scanner used by this project (Heidelberg Nexscan F4100; the resolution is 100 pixels per millimeter at 200 pixels per millimeter optical scanner resolution) --
You can access this service using:
This service is published as follows:
local means it is listed on our front page, ivo_managed means it has a record in the VO registry.
Other services provided on the underlying data include:
The following fields are available to provide input to the service (with some renderers, some of these fields may be unavailable):
| Name | Table Head | Description | Unit | UCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cutoutSize | Cutout size | Size of the cutout image [degrees] | deg | N/A |
| dateObs | Obs. date | Epoch at midpoint of observation | d | time;obs.exposure |
| FORMAT | Output format | Requested format of the image data | N/A | N/A |
| hFORMAT | Output format | Requested format of the image data | N/A | N/A |
| hINTERSECT | Intersection type | Relation of image and specified Region of Interest. | N/A | N/A |
| hPOS | Position | ICRS Position, RA,DEC, or Simbad object (e.g., 234.234,-32.45) | N/A | pos.eq |
| hSIZE | Field size | Size in decimal degrees (e.g., 0.2 or 1,0.1) | deg | N/A |
| INTERSECT | Intersection type | Relation of image and specified Region of Interest. | N/A | N/A |
| maxrec | Match limit | Maximum number of records returned. Pass 0 to retrieve service parameters. | N/A | N/A |
| POS | Position | ICRS Position, RA,DEC decimal degrees (e.g., 234.234,-32.46) | N/A | pos.eq |
| responseformat | Output Format | File format requested for output. | N/A | meta.code.mime |
| SIZE | Field size | Size in decimal degrees (e.g., 0.2 or 1,0.1) | deg | N/A |
| verb | Verbosity | Exhaustiveness of column selection. VERB=1 only returns the most important columns, VERB=2 selects the columns deemed useful to the average user, VERB=3 returns a table with all available columns. | N/A | N/A |
The following fields are contained in the output by default. More fields may be available for selection; these would be given below in the VOTable output fields.
| Name | Table Head | Description | Unit | UCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| accref | Product key | Access key for the data | N/A | meta.ref.url |
| accsize | File size | Size of the data in bytes | byte | VOX:Image_FileSize |
| bandpassHi | Band upper | Upper limit of the bandpass (in BandPass_Unit units) | m | instr.bandpass;stat.max |
| bandpassId | Bandpass | Freeform name of the bandpass used | N/A | instr.bandpass |
| bandpassLo | Band lower | Lower limit of the bandpass (in BandPass_Unit units) | m | instr.bandpass;stat.min |
| bandpassRefval | Band Ref. | Characteristic quantity for the bandpass of the image | m | instr.bandpass;stat.median |
| bandpassUnit | Bandpass unit | Unit of bandpass specifications (always m). | N/A | N/A |
| centerAlpha | Ctr. RA | Approximate center of image, RA | deg | pos.eq.ra |
| centerDelta | Ctr. Dec | Approximate center of image, Dec | deg | pos.eq.dec |
| coverage | Coverage | Field covered by the image | deg | N/A |
| dateObs | Obs. date | Epoch at midpoint of observation | d | time;obs.exposure |
| endTime | End | UT at end of exposure | d | time.end;obs |
| exposure | Exp. time | Effective exposure time | s | time.duration;obs.exposure |
| filter | Filter | Filter description | N/A | meta.id;instr.filter;meta.main |
| imageTitle | Title | Synthetic name of the image | N/A | meta.title |
| instId | Instrument | Identifier of the originating instrument | N/A | meta.id;instr |
| mime | Type | MIME type of the file served | N/A | meta.code.mime |
| nAxes | #axes | Number of axes in data | N/A | pos.wcs.naxes |
| object | Targ. Obj. | Special object on plate | N/A | meta.id |
| pixelScale | Scales | The pixel scale on each image axis | deg/pixel | pos.wcs.scale |
| pixelSize | Axes Lengths | Number of pixels along each of the axes | pixel | pos.wcs.naxis |
| pixflags | P. Flags | Flags specifying the processing done (C-original; F-resampled; Z-fluxes valid; X-not resampled; V-for display only | N/A | meta.code |
| plateID | Plate | Plate name as specified in observation catalogue | N/A | N/A |
| pub_did | Pub. DID | Dataset identifier assigned by the publisher. | N/A | meta.ref.url |
| refFrame | Ref. Frame | Coordinate system reference frame | N/A | pos.frame |
| startTime | Start | UT at start of exposure | d | time.start;obs |
| wcs_cdmatrix | CD matrix | FITS WCS CDij matrix | deg/pixel | pos.wcs.cdmatrix |
| wcs_equinox | Equinox | Equinox of the given coordinates | yr | time.equinox |
| wcs_projection | Proj. | FITS WCS projection type | N/A | pos.wcs.ctype |
| wcs_refPixel | Ref. pixel | WCS reference pixel | pixel | pos.wcs.crpix |
| wcs_refValues | Ref. values | World coordinates at WCS reference pixel | deg | pos.wcs.crval |
The following fields are available in VOTable output. The verbosity level is a number intended to represent the relative importance of the field on a scale of 1 to 30. The services take a VERB argument. A field is included in the output if their verbosity level is less or equal VERB*10.
| Name | Table Head | Description | Unit | UCD | Verb. Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| centerAlpha | Ctr. RA | Approximate center of image, RA | deg | pos.eq.ra | 0 |
| centerDelta | Ctr. Dec | Approximate center of image, Dec | deg | pos.eq.dec | 0 |
| imageTitle | Title | Synthetic name of the image | N/A | meta.title | 0 |
| dateObs | Obs. date | Epoch at midpoint of observation | d | time;obs.exposure | 0 |
| accref | Product key | Access key for the data | N/A | meta.ref.url | 1 |
| pub_did | Pub. DID | Dataset identifier assigned by the publisher. | N/A | meta.ref.url | 5 |
| bandpassId | Bandpass | Freeform name of the bandpass used | N/A | instr.bandpass | 10 |
| accsize | File size | Size of the data in bytes | byte | VOX:Image_FileSize | 11 |
| pixelScale | Scales | The pixel scale on each image axis | deg/pixel | pos.wcs.scale | 12 |
| instId | Instrument | Identifier of the originating instrument | N/A | meta.id;instr | 15 |
| pixelSize | Axes Lengths | Number of pixels along each of the axes | pixel | pos.wcs.naxis | 15 |
| exposure | Exp. time | Effective exposure time | s | time.duration;obs.exposure | 15 |
| object | Targ. Obj. | Special object on plate | N/A | meta.id | 15 |
| filter | Filter | Filter description | N/A | meta.id;instr.filter;meta.main | 15 |
| startTime | Start | UT at start of exposure | d | time.start;obs | 15 |
| endTime | End | UT at end of exposure | d | time.end;obs | 15 |
| plateID | Plate | Plate name as specified in observation catalogue | N/A | N/A | 15 |
| mime | Type | MIME type of the file served | N/A | meta.code.mime | 20 |
| nAxes | #axes | Number of axes in data | N/A | pos.wcs.naxes | 20 |
| refFrame | Ref. Frame | Coordinate system reference frame | N/A | pos.frame | 20 |
| wcs_equinox | Equinox | Equinox of the given coordinates | yr | time.equinox | 20 |
| wcs_projection | Proj. | FITS WCS projection type | N/A | pos.wcs.ctype | 20 |
| wcs_refPixel | Ref. pixel | WCS reference pixel | pixel | pos.wcs.crpix | 20 |
| wcs_refValues | Ref. values | World coordinates at WCS reference pixel | deg | pos.wcs.crval | 20 |
| wcs_cdmatrix | CD matrix | FITS WCS CDij matrix | deg/pixel | pos.wcs.cdmatrix | 20 |
| bandpassUnit | Bandpass unit | Unit of bandpass specifications (always m). | N/A | N/A | 20 |
| bandpassRefval | Band Ref. | Characteristic quantity for the bandpass of the image | m | instr.bandpass;stat.median | 20 |
| bandpassHi | Band upper | Upper limit of the bandpass (in BandPass_Unit units) | m | instr.bandpass;stat.max | 20 |
| bandpassLo | Band lower | Lower limit of the bandpass (in BandPass_Unit units) | m | instr.bandpass;stat.min | 20 |
| pixflags | P. Flags | Flags specifying the processing done (C-original; F-resampled; Z-fluxes valid; X-not resampled; V-for display only | N/A | meta.code | 20 |
| coverage | Coverage | Field covered by the image | deg | N/A | 20 |
| airmass | Airmass | Airmass at mean epoch | N/A | obs.airMass | 21 |
| emulsion | Emulsion | Emulsion of the original plate | N/A | instr.plate.emulsion | 21 |
| observer | Observer | Observer | N/A | obs.observer | 21 |
| owner | Owner | Owner of the data | N/A | N/A | 25 |
| embargo | Embargo ends | Date the data will become/became public | a | N/A | 25 |
To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to the HDAP scans. For details, see the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain dedication. Of course, you should still give proper credit when using this data as required by good scientific practice.
VOResource XML (that's something exclusively for VO nerds)
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