Photographic memory project on glass plates: preservation of the memory of the National Observatory

Abstract

This project aims to preserve the scientific memory of the National Observatory, expressed in the historical collection of 971 glass photographic plates. More than 100 years of glass plate observations and recordings on the National Observatory campus and on national and international expeditions and campaigns have been classified, sanitized, digitized and stored. This important collection contains images of total and partial eclipses of the Sun and Moon, planets, fields and star clusters, comets, asteroids, scientific instruments, domes, buildings, seismograms and magnetograms and the daily life of scientific expeditions. These images, the main result of this long work, are now available to the entire population.