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arXiv · 1211.1051

Opening the 100-Year Window for Time Domain Astronomy

Jonathan Grindlay·Sumin Tang·Edward Los·Mathieu Servillat
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Abstract

The large-scale surveys such as PTF, CRTS and Pan-STARRS-1 that have emerged within the past 5 years or so employ digital databases and modern analysis tools to accentuate research into Time Domain Astronomy (TDA). Preparations are underway for LSST which, in another 6 years, will usher in the second decade of modern TDA. By that time the Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH) project will have made available to the community the full sky Historical TDA database and digitized images for a century (1890--1990) of coverage. We describe the current DASCH development and some initial results, and outline plans for the "production scanning" phase and data distribution which is to begin in 2012. That will open a 100-year window into temporal astrophysics, revealing rare transients and (especially) astrophysical phenomena that vary on time-scales of a decade. It will also provide context and archival comparisons for the deeper modern surveys

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Jonathan Grindlay, Sumin Tang, Edward Los, Mathieu Servillat. 2012-11-05. Opening the 100-Year Window for Time Domain Astronomy. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743921312000166

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