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From Milliarcsecond Proper Motions to the Discovery of Dark Matter: Some Winning Cards still in the hands of Photographic Astronomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

J. Guibert
Affiliation:
Centre d’Analyse des Images/MAMA, and Observatoire de Paris (DEMIRM), 61 av. de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
J. Souchay
Affiliation:
Centre d’Analyse des Images/MAMA, and Observatoire de Paris (DEMIRM), 61 av. de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France

Abstract

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The large field of Schmidt plates allows monitoring of hundreds of thousands or even millions of stars, either for magnitude variations or for proper motions. CCD cameras benefit from the sensitivity, linearity, and easy interface to computers of detectors of increasing dimensions. However, especially for proper motion studies, there is no substitute to plates of first or intermediate epochs. In addition, the photographic plates, with their large sky coverage free of gaps, are irreplaceable for the accurate astrometry of optical counterparts of sources detected at other wavelengths.

We first introduce the subject by mentioning a few problems concerning the replacement of Schmidt plates by CCD detectors. After a brief survey of astronomical applications requiring accurate astrometry or massive processing in large fields, we develop in more detail the results obtained in proper motion studies by several groups using the MAMA system (Berger et al. 1991). The last part of this paper is devoted to the studies of stellar variability and to the EROS and DUO microlensing programmes. Our conclusion (not a surprise, we think), is that Schmidt telescopes with photographic facilities should remain available to the general astronomical community for at least a decade and probably more.

Type
IV. Other Technical Developments
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1995

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