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Plate Series

Plates are cataloged by plate series and plate number. Each series typically represents a single telescope although some series, notably the "mb" series consists of data from multiple telescopes. Telescopes were occasionally moved to other observatories depending on observational goals.

The following table represents all of the Harvard plate series currently in the database.

The plate scale, if available, comes from the WCS fitting algorithm. Otherwise, the scale comes from archive records. The values provided here are not definitive for early "mc" plates before the objective was refigured, and for the multiple-telescope "mb" series.

There are currently 88 series in the database. The primary source of this information comes from Martha Hazen's History of the Plate Series. To see this source information, click on the series name in the table below.

seriesId Series Aperture (m) Scale (arcsec/mm) Telescope
1 a 0.6 59.57 24-inch Bruce Doublet
37 ab 0.0635 590 2.5-inch Ross Portrait Lens
2 ac 0.038 606.4 1.5-inch Cooke Lenses
38 acmisc     ac-b logbook. No plates.
39 aco 0.0254 611.3 1 in Cook Lens #832 Series renamed from ac-a
3 adh 0.76 68 32-36 inch BakerSchmidt 10 1/2 inch round Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard
40 ai 0.038 1360 Patrol cameras
41 ak 0.038 614.5 1.5 in Cooke "Long Focus"
4 al 0.038 1200 Cooke Short Focus
5 am 0.038 610.8 1-inch, 1.5-inch Cooke Lenses
42 an   574 New Cooke Lens
43 ax 0.076 695.7 3 inch Ross-Tessar Lens
44 ay 0.066 694.2 2.6-inch Zeiss-Tessar
79 ayroe 0.152   Roe 6-inch
6 b 0.2 179.4 8-inch Bache Doublet, Voigtlander, reworked by Clark
45 bc 0.406   16-inch Boller & Chivens
46 bi 0.038 1446 1.5 inch Ross (short focus)
7 bm 0.075 384 3-inch Ross
47 bo 0.0635 800 2.5 inch Voigtlander (Little Bache or "Bachito")
8 br 0.2 204 8-inch Brashear Lens
9 c 0.3 84 11-inch Draper Refractor
48 ca 0.0635 596 2.5 inch Cooke Lens
10 d     Positives
49 darnor   890 Darlot Lens North
50 darsou   890 Darlot Lens South
11 dnb 0.042 577.3 Damons North Blue
12 dnr 0.042 579.7 Damons North Red
13 dny 0.042 576.1 Damons North Yellow
14 dsb 0.042 574.5 Damons South Blue
15 dsr 0.042 579.7 Damons South Red
16 dsy 0.042 581.8 Damons South Yellow
51 ee 0.102 330 4-inch Voightlander Lens
52 er 0.076 390 3-inch Elmer Ross
17 fa 0.038 1298 1.5-inch Ross-Xpress
18 h 0.6 59.6 24-inch Clark Reflector
53 hsl     Henrietta Leavitt Logbooks. No plates.
19 i 0.2 163.3 8-inch Draper Doublet, Voigtlander Reworked by Clark
20 ir 0.2 164 8-inch Ross Lundin
21 j 0.6 98 24-33 in Jewett Schmidt
54 jdar 0.076 560 3-inch Darlot (Series renamed from j)
86 ka 0.071 1200 2.8-inch Kodak Aero-Ektar
87 kb 0.071 1200 2.8-inch Kodak Aero-Ektar
88 kc 0.127 650 K-19 Air Force Camera
89 kd 0.127 650 Air Force Camera
90 ke 0.071 1160 Eastman Aero-Ektar K-24 Lens on a K-19 Barrel
91 kf 0.071 1160 Eastman Aero-Ektar K-24 Lens on a K-19 Barrel
92 kg 0.071 1160 Eastman Aero-Ektar K-24 Lens on a K-19 Barrel Formerly KE
93 kge 0.071 1160 Eastman Aero-Ektar K-24 Lens on a K-19 Barrel Formerly KE
94 kh 0.071 1160 KE Camera with Installed Rough Focus
56 m 0.127   5-in Voightlander Transit Photometer
22 ma 0.3 93.7 12-inch Metcalf Doublet
23 mb 0.1 390 4-inch Cooke (1-327), 6-inch (328-1776) 3-inch Ross Lundin (2388-2722)
24 mc 0.4 97.9 16-inch Metcalf Doublet (Refigured after 3500)
25 md 0.1 193 4-inch Cooke Lens
82 me 0.038 600 1.5-inch Cooke Lenses
26 meteor 0.3 1200  
27 mf 0.25 167.3 10-inch Metcalf Triplet
55 misc     Logbook Only. Pages without plates.
57 n     Transit Photometer
58 nviews     Landscapes and views (Series renamed from n)
60 o     Stellar
59 oa     Stellar
61 p     Eclipse Plates
81 pz 0.076 1553 3 inch Perkin-Zeiss Lens
64 q     Emulsion and Lens Tests
62 qa     Emulsion and Lens Tests
63 qb     Emulsion and Lens Tests
29 r 0.075 390 3-inch Ross Fecker
65 ra     Prints of Neg. Post (?) Enlargements
30 rb 0.075 395.5 3-inch Ross Fecker
31 rh 0.075 391.3 3-inch Ross Fecker
32 rl 0.1 290 4-inch Ross Lundin
66 ro   390  
67 rp      
68 s 1.52 26.3 60 inch Common
33 sb 1.5 26 60-inch Rockefeller Reflector
34 sh 1.5 26 61-inch Wyeth Reflector
77 solar     Solar (Series Discarded)
69 sp     Spectrum SH Plates
70 sq     SB Spectrum Plates
71 t     Sky Photometer
72 vq     Heinrich VQ (Spectrograph)
74 w     Slit Spectrograph
73 wa     Cooke Lens #11366 (Western Association)
78 ww     Heinrich Camera Lens
35 x 0.33 42.3 13-inch Boyden Refractor
75 y 0.203   8-inch Clark Doublet
76 z 0.33   13-inch Boyden Refractor (spectrum plates)