Archives of Photographic PLates for Astronomical USE (APPLAUSE) Digitisation of astronomical plates and their integration into the International Virtual Observatory

TL;DR

The APPLAUSE project digitizes and integrates German astronomical photographic plates into the Virtual Observatory, enabling long-term astronomical studies and historical light curve analysis with over two billion measurements from 70,000 plates.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive digitization and calibration pipeline for astronomical plates, integrating diverse collections into the IVO with new software and standards.

Findings

Constructed the historic light curve of KIC 8462852 showing no decades-long variations.

Demonstrated the use of digitized plates to study transient phenomena like novae and supernovae.

Provided a large, calibrated database for long-term astronomical research.

Abstract

The Archives of Photographic PLates for Astronomical USE (APPLAUSE) project is aimed at digitising astronomical photographic plates from three major German plate collections, making them accessible through integration into the International Virtual Observatory (IVO). Photographic plates and related materials (logbooks, envelopes, etc.) were scanned with commercial flatbed scanners. Astrometric and photometric calibrations were carried out with the developed PyPlate software, using Gaia EDR3 data as a reference. The APPLAUSE data publication complies with IVO standards. The latest data release contains images and metadata from 27 plate collections from the partner institutes in Hamburg, Bamberg, and Potsdam, along with digitised archives provided by Tautenburg, Tartu, and Vatican observatories. Altogether, over two billion calibrated measurements extracted from about 70,000 direct photographic plates can readily be used to create long-term light curves. For instance, we constructed the historic light curve of the enigmatic dipping star KIC 8462852. We found no evidence of previously assumed variations on timescales of decades in our light curve. Potential uses of APPLAUSE images for transient sources can be appreciated by following the development of the nova shell of GK Per (1901) over time and the change in brightness of two extragalactic supernovae. The database holds about 10,000 spectral plates. We made use of objective prism plates to follow the temporal changes of Nova DN Gem through 1912 and 1913, highlighting an outburst in early 1913.