The Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner: A New User Facility

Abstract

The redevelopment of the Minnesota Automated Plate Scanner (APS) is complete and the system is being used as an astronomical visitor facility. The system consists of the original CDC-Luyten scanner with a new microprocessor-based motion control system, state of the art detection electronics, a PDP-11/60 data acquisition system with all relevant scanning parameters under software control, a Sun 3/110 computer for data reductions and a high speed link to the University of Minnesota Supercomputer Institute Cray 2 for reductions of very large projects. The redeveloped APS is among the fastest plate measuring machines in the world and features a variety of densitometric and isophotometric data acquisition modes. An ambitious project is being undertaken to scan all plates of the first epoch Palomar Sky Survey. Objects will be classified as stars, galaxies, plate flaws, etc., and accurate positions and magnitudes will be determined. This resulting catalog, as well as the raw data archive, will be made available to the astronomical community.