Four years experience in APMS star plate processing - Results and future plansThe present paper describes an automated system for measuring stellar proper motions on the basis of information contained in photographic plates. In this system, the images on a star plate are digitized by a scanning microdensitometer using light from a He-Ne gas laser, and a special-purpose computer arranges the measurements in computer-compatible form on magnetic tape. The scanning and image-reconstruction processes are briefly outlined, and the image-evaluation techniques are discussed. It is shown that the present system has been especially successful in measuring the proper motions of low-luminosity stars, including 119 stars with less than 1/10,000 of the solar bolometric luminosity. Plans for measurements of high-density Milky Way star plates are noted.
Document ID
19760039412
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Authors
Newcomb, J. S. (Control Data Corp. Minneapolis, Minn., United States)