Sergei V. Vereshchagin, Natalia V. ChupinaInstitute of Astronomy, Russian Academy of Sciences

European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, 4-8 July 2011, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Vereshchagin S.V.: svvs@ya.ru, Chupina N.V.: chupina@inasan.ru

Figure 1. The 40-cm Carl Zeiss astrograph on the broken mount (F=200 cm, field size 8° x 8°, limiting magnitude down to 18m)

IntroductionThe plate archive was created by efforts of Zvenigorod observatory observers throughout more than quarter of the century. Basically a field stars was observed, but a considerable part was made by asteroids and comets observations. Our data will be interesting to researchers of asteroids and comets.

Digital archiveNow we scanning and cataloging the plate images according to requirements of the Data Center in Sofia. The information about our group, tools, the size and characteristics of glass library of the Zvenigorod observatory is presented on a site http://www.inasan.ru/rus/scan/. The site address for viewing of archive of photographic plates of the Zvenigorod Astrograph in a BD in Bulgaria Data Center (WFPDB):http://draco.skyarchive.org/search/search.cgi

Instrument D, cm

F, cm

Field size, deg

plate size, cm Years n

Astrograph Zeiss-400

40 206 8 x 8 30 x 30 1972 - 2005 3703

The telescope characteristicPhoto plates of 40-cm Carl Zeiss astrograph is available totally approximately 4500 (but only 3703 was included in log). For the majority of these plates the exposure stole up that a stars up to 16.5 magnitudes were well visible.

The telescope have wide field equal 8.5° on 8.5° for as much as possible for a large plate with size 30 on 30 cm. Such field of view allows to photograph a long tails of comets, having them on a plate diagonal.

The brief history of telescope usingThe first program was the observation of the 9 bright quasars (to 18m) which images were like a good dot. It was necessary to building of the Inertial coordinates system.Radio sources identified with optical sources (8%). Program carried out to production the catalogue of basic stars around of 190 radio sources. Field Stars. About one half of all negatives have been made under the program «Photographic review of the sky» (FON) for building the astrometric Photographic catalog of proper motions (FOKAT). The range of declinations is –2° to +90°. The plates centers are distributed that the images of the sky partially overlapped. Pluto and Mars observations (3%). Pluto program was carried out by V.P.Osipenko for orbit specification. Mars observation serve to expeditions to Fobos and made with the special filter received from Pulkovo observatory.

AsteroidsThe Asteroids program (30%). The program was carried out under the IAU from 1980 to 90-th years and it is the subprogram of Photographic observation of selected asteroids. The program target is a position specification of a point of a Spring Equinox. Each plate has a three exposure with camera shift on declination. Thus the sequence of images of a minor planet is inclined to a stars images sequence and it is easy to asteroid finding.The results were necessarily lead up to calculations of equatorial coordinates and were sent to Marsden Center.The particular interest represents 4179 Toutatis as an asteroid approaching with the Earth. But for these purpose the astrograph was recognized as unsuitable because the limiting star magnitude is near the 17m whereas the NEA have magnitudes range from 19m to 26m.

Figure. 2. Asteroid number 39, Letitsija. A fragment of the picture received by a special technique by V.P.Osipenko and intended for scientific processing and detection moving objects. Chains of four expositions have embodied stars (small points) surrounding an asteroid. Asteroid positions are round by curve. September 2, 1996

num namenumber of plates

1 Ceres 56

2 Pallas 87

3 Juno 88

4 Vesta 82

5 Astraea 1

6 Hebe 104

7 Iris 44

11 Parthenope 76

16 Psyche 1

18 Melpomene 86

25 Phocaea 58

36 Atalante 1

38 Leda 1

39 Laetitia 81

40 Harmonia 93

num namenumber of plates

53 Kolypso 1

148 Gallia 71

150 Nuwa 2

189 Phthia 1

389 Industria 54

432 Pyhia 1

480 Hansa 11

532 Herculina 56

568 Cheruskia 8

582 Olympia 16

594 Mireille 2

704 Interamnia 19

1301 Yvonne 7

1303 Luthera 1

4179 Toutatis 3

The asteroids list

Figure 5. The comet Hiakutaki B2 passes on the shortest distance from the World Pole (4°).

Figure 3. Hiakutaki comet . The author is V.P. Osipenko. (4/8/1996). Tracing was made on a comet. The tail length is 5°. Long narrow threads are an ionic tail. The wide tail is the dust.

The bright comets list27P/Crommelin, 81P/Wild, 9P/Tempel 1, Kohoutek, IRAS-Araki-Alcock, 1P/Halley, Hiakutaki B1, Hiakutaki B2, Machholz, Hale-Bopp, Fukuda, Jkeya-Zhang, 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, McNaught Hartley, 122P/de Vico, Levy-Rudenko

Comets observationsThe comet observations were spent for two targets: the exact coordinate determination and a tail study (separations, condensations, turbulences). The astrograph allows to receive coordinates of a comet kernel with accuracy 3”-5”. For this purpose a chain of 5 expositions is made then get out the optimum star-shaped image of a kernel convenient for measurements.

For tail study the plate was guided so that the tail settled down on its diagonal, and the star on which telescope moved, was near a head of a comet. So it was possible to receive the image of a tail in length to 7° (25 cm). The our comets images wil interesting for studying the details of tails, and also their morphology and its change in due course. name Number

of plates

1979i 2

1979l 2

1980u 4

1980q 3

1982g 1

1983d 7

1982i 20

1982j 2

1983l 4

1983v 10

1984u 4

1984t 3

1984e 41

name Number of plates

1985m 2

1985p 3

1986l 5

1986n 5

1987s 3

1989e 1

1994o 8

1995q 3

1995s 13

1996b 30

1995° 18

1996q 4

Krommelin 18Figure 4. The astrograph plate fragment with the 81P/Wild comet image.

More information:http://www.inasan.ru/rus/scan/

Digital archive of plate collection of the astrograph of the Zvenigorod observatory of Institute of Astronomy

of the Russian Academy of Sciences