-  INTRODUCTION  - 

The Working Group on the Preservation and Digitization of Photographic Plates (WG-PDPP) of the International Astronomical Union invites you to participate in a workshop on issues related to archiving, digitizing and utilizing photographic spectra.   This will be a virtual conference on October 20 – 23, 2026, from 14:00 to 17:00 UT each day.  Registration is expected but there is no fee for participation. 

The Workshop is intended for

• Astronomers interested in making use of archived spectroscopic data
• Librarians and archivist charged with preserving, organizing, and cataloguing astronomical plate collections
• Science historians and others interested in historical astronomical practices

Two years ago a group of astronomers and technicians at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory hosted an international Workshop that learned about, and discussed, aspects of astronomy’s world-wide collections of photographic plates, in particular their preservation, storage and digitization. However, there was only time, and specific interest then, in dealing with direct plates – ones showing images of the sky or of celestial bodies – so a follow-up Workshop was proposed to address aspects of astronomy’s vast numbers of photographic spectrograms.

These spectrograms display, on some durable medium like glass or film, the way that the intensity of light or radiation from a celestial body changes with wavelength (or wavenumber) or with time. Those changes are key to a multitude of physical properties about the source, such as its surface temperature, mass, luminosity, size, evolutionary state, velocity in the line of sight (radial velocity), chemical makeup, and so on. Photographic exposures of spectra are particularly demanding on how methods of calibration are applied, both for wavelength scales and for conversion from observed to determined light intensity, and especially to the degree of care given to the relevant processes.

These topics will be discussed and described fully by the Workshop. Because it will be an international virtual event, each day’s proceedings will be less extended that the conventional in-personal conference, but available to all who are interested and wish to participate.

Please refer to the PROGRAM (see tab under the left hand column, Event Menu) for the list of specific topics that will be covered.

The virtual meeting will be held through ZOOM, after the deadline of the registration, the zoom link and password will be sent to all confirmed attenders.

For those who want to attend the Workshop after the deadline, the zoom link and password can be obtained by sending email to: cjc@arizona.edu.

 

 -  For more information and to offer comments  - 

Elizabeth Griffin (WG-PDPP Chair).  Email:  r.elizabeth.griffin@gmail.com

Chris Corbally (WG-PDPP Secretary). Email:  cjc@arizona.edu

 

 -  CONFERENCE TIME IN DIFFERENT REGIONS  - 

In order to facilitate the participation of colleagues from all over the world in this conference, the Workshop will be held for half a day from 14:00 to 17:00 (UTC). The corresponding time for different regions is as follows:

   22:00 – 01:00 China (Shanghai, host institution)

   07:00 – 10:00 North America West

   10:00 – 13:00 North America East, Chile

   15:00 – 18:00 UK: (Summer time)

   16:00 – 19:00 Western Europe (Summer time)

   17:00 – 20:00 Moscow

 

 - Scientific organizing committee of the Workshop  - 

Elizabeth Griffin (DAO), Jennifer Bartlett (CfA), Christopher Corbally (Vatican), Beatrice Bucciarelli (INAF), Massinissa Hadjara (NIAOT/UChile ), Liz Kruesi (Journalist & Editor), Stephen Levine (Lowell), Gillian Nave (NIST), Wayne Osborn (Yerkes), Vincent Robert (Meudon), Ian Shelton (Toronto), Zheng-Hong Tang (SHAO), Jacob Ward (NIST)