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Transactions IAU, Volume XXVIIA Reports on Astronomy 2006-2009 Karel A. van der Hucht, ed.

c 2009 International Astronomical Union DOI: 00.0000/X000000000000000X

COMMISSION 5

DOCUMENTATION AND ASTRONOMICAL DATA
DOCUMENTATION ET ґ DONNEES ASTRONOMIQUES

PRESIDENT VICE-PRESIDENT PAST PRESIDENT ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Ray P. Norris Masatoshi Ohishi Francoise Genova ё Uta Grothkopf, Oleg Yu. Malkov, Masatoshi Ohishi, William D. Pence, Marion Schmitz, Rob ert J. Hanisch, Xu Zhou

COMMISSION 5 WORKING GROUPS Di Di Di Di Di v v v v v . . . . . XI XI XI XI XI I I I I I / / / / / Com Com Com Com Com m m m m m i i i i i ssi ssi ssi ssi ssi on on on on on 5 5 5 5 5 WG WG WG WG WG Astronomical Data Designations Libraries FITS Virtual Observatories, Data Centers and Networks Preservation and Digitization of Photographic Plates

Div. XI I / Commission 5 TF

TRIENNIAL REPORT 2006-2009

1. Intro duction
IAU Commission 5 deals with data management issues, and its working groups and task groups deal specifically with information handling, with data centres and networks, with technical aspects of collection, archiving, storage and dissemination of data, with designations and classification of astronomical ob jects, with library services, editorial policies, computer communications, ad hoc methodologies, and with various standards, reference frames, etc. FITS, astronomys Flexible Image Transport System, the ma jor data exchange format, is controlled, maintained and updated by the FITS working group. Highlights of the 2006-2009 triennium have so far included · WGAD: Three astronomers, including the WGAD chair, participated in ICSUs Strategic Committee for Information and Data (SCID), resulting in a proposal to restructure the World Data Centre System and the Federation for Astronomical and Geophysical data analysis Systems. · FITS: A New FITS Standard Document has been approved in July 2008 following a lengthy period of consultation and debate. The new standard is available on the FITS Support Office Web site at http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov. 1


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DIVISION XII / COMMISSION 5

2. Future Commission 5 activities
Planned activities include: · A one-day session on Astronomical data and the Virtual Observatory, at the CODATA GA in Kiev, in October 2008 · A meeting of FAGS and WDC representatives at the 2008 CODATA GA in Kiev to discuss the establishment of the new WDS. · A three-day Special Session on Accelerating the Rate of Progress in Astronomy at the IAU GA in Rio in August 2009 · An electronic discussion led by the WGAD on Data Challenges of Next-generation Astronomical Instrumentation, in the months leading up to the IAU GA

3. The PDPP Task Force
As well as its Working Groups, whose reports are published separately in this volume, Commission 5 includes a Task Force on Preservation and Digitization of Photographic Plates, whose short report is included here. A full report is on http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rnorris/IAUC5/TF PDPP2008.htm. Many Task Force members are involved in studies of long-term variability, which require monitoring over a time exceeding that available from digital observations alone. Historic data reproduced accurately from archived plates are thus central to such research. Several pro jects involve Carte du Ciel (CdC) plates; in 2006 the WG-CdC was merged with the PDPP. Plate Preservation: A North American Astronomical Plate repository has been established at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, North Carolina. However, the Cambridge (UK) plate store was dismantled and the contents repatriated or disseminated. Direct plates: Measurements of several collections of astrograph plates with the USNO StarScan plate measuring machine have been completed with a repeatability of 0.2 µm. Positions and magnitudes from century-old Sydney Observatory Galactic Survey plates have now been catalogued, and early analyses are already contributing new science. A comparison between Gaia and CdC measurements along an equatorial belt is being proposed to search for changes, and evidence for the interstellar medium has also been detected from CdC plates. A catalogue of Vatican Observatory Schmidt plates (now digitized), plus `thumbnail' scans, will be posted on the web. However, the preservation and digitization of the substantial historic collections of direct and ob jective-prism plates from the National, Qing Dao and Purple Mountain Observatories is hampered by lack of resources. Sp ectroscopy: The digitizing of selected spectrograms borrowed from various US observatories for telluric ozone research has re-started at the DAO, including a collaboration with the Carnegie Institution to digitize a subset of Mount Wilson spectra. The 10-10 microdensitometer from KPNO has been brought in as a first step in setting up an international scanning laboratory. The ma jor ob jective-prism survey of the Byurakan Observatory has now been digitized, and is in the public domain; early scientific results are already impressive. Ray P. Norris president of the Commission