Serendipitous Gamma Ray Burst Observations - 50 Years Ago

Michael Castelazand

Thurburn Barker

Not-for-profit foundationwww.pari.edu

Clemson UniversityFebruary 10, 2011

• More than 2 million astronomical photographic plates from the late 19th to the 21st Century are historic and scientifically valuable.

• Astronomical photographic plate collections are: becoming inaccessible, or neglected, or destroyed; irreplaceable resources for time-domain astronomy.

Plate Preservation Workshop November 1-3, 2007

Astronomical Photographic Data Archive (APDA)

Established as a new type of astronomical observatory to harness the 150 years of analog data of the night sky

and make that data digitally accessible

APDA Mission• Dedicated to collection, restoration, preservation

and storage of astronomical photographic data.• Tasked with digitizing and establishing a digital

database of images Internet accessible.

APDA is essential both for the health of astronomical science and for credibility of the current generation of astronomers

as guardians of its unique heritage.

Guide Star Automatic Measuring MAchine

(GAMMA) For production of a digital database of plates in APDA

Major Collections in APDA• Royal Observatory Edinburgh• CTIO, KPNO• USNO• Palomar Observatory• Harvard (Full Sky Survey 1898-1903)• Dyer Observatory – Vanderbilt University• McDonald Observatory• University of Michigan Spectra and Objective Prism• Warner-Swasey• Harvard College Observatory Meteor Project

* More than 150,000 plates/films in APDA inventory* Collection dates range from 1898 through 1994

Harvard Photographic Meteor Program1951 -1957

Jacchia and Whipple 1956, Vistas in Astronomy, 2, 982

31.1-cm f/0.85 Baker-Super-Schmidt

55-degree FOV

42,000 moulded films

18.7-cm cordial x 20.3-cm radius

Dona Ana and Soledad Canyon – 28.6 km apart

Collection rescued and now in the Astronomical Photographic Data Archive (APDA)

Harvard Photographic Meteor Program1951 -1957

SK 6409

Examples of Film Defects

Film 8303 Splash Feature

Film 8299 Spots Film 8301 Trees

Transient Event?Harvard Photographic Meteor Program

SK6410SK6409 SK6415

13 August 1956

SK6409 SK6410 SK6415

Possible Nature of the Transient Event

NOVA Vul 1968A

LV Vul

29 April 1968 5h 25m UT

RA (2000) = 19 48 00.52 Dec (2000) = +27 10 19.3

Vmax 4.97 Vmin 16.90

Fernie 1969, PASP, 81, 374

BATSE 4B Gamma-Ray Burst CatalogPaciesas et al. 1999, Astrophys.J.Suppl. 122, 46

4B 95051

19h 47m 41s (2000) +27 46’ 48”Position Error Circle = 1.22 degrees

1 May 19953h 25m 4.0s UT

Follow-up Observations at Pisgah Astronomical

Research Institute

The 200 acre Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI), looking from the 26-m East radio telescope towards the West 26-m radio

telescope. APDA is located on the lower floor of the PARI Research Building adjacent to the West 26-m radio telescope.

The PARI Research Building. The lower level of this building is the home of APDA. Seen behind the building is the West PARI 26 Meter radio telescope, and the PARI 4.6 Meter Internet Accessible radio telescope (“Smiley”) used for E/PO.

• 20,000 square foot, two story building with labs and offices.• RF Lab, APDA, lab space for long- and short-term projects conducted by PARI Research

Faculty Affiliates.• NSF ARI-R2 Award AST-0963300 for renovation• EMC Corp. donated a storage system now installed in the Research Building