Citizen scientists to rescue 150 years of cosmic images

March 24, 2017
The Astonomy Rewind project aims to resurrect old astronomy figures, such as this 1905 image of the Orion Nebula.
The Astonomy Rewind project aims to resurrect old astronomy figures, such as this 1905 image of the Orion Nebula.

‘Lost’ images from astronomy journals are being rediscovered through a citizen-science project that launched on 22 March — a potential boon to researchers looking for changes in the Universe. 'Astronomy Rewind' harnesses volunteers to digitize, map and make searchable observations featured in papers from journals of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) dating back to around 1850.

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Astronomy Rewind Image

 

At left is a photograph of the Orion Nebula from page 396 of the June 1905 Astrophysical Journal -- without coordinate labels to fix its celestial position and orientation. Astrometry.net was able to recognize the star pattern, after which the image was rotated more than 180° to put north up and placed in context on the sky in WorldWide Telescope.

American Astronomical Society, NASA/SAO Astrophysics Data System & WorldWide Telescope