de Cuyper, J. ; Winter, L.

published in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XIV, 347, pp. 651 (2005)

Abstract: The D4A (Digital Access to Aerial- and Astro-photographic Archives) project aims to acquire the necessary know-how, hardware and software to digitise the astro-photographic collections of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and the aerial-photographic collections of the National Geographic Institute and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in collaboration with AGFA-Gevaert. The D4A digitiser under construction consists of a granite based Aerotech ABL 3600 open frame air bearing XY positioning system, with custom build hardware to mount glass plates, film sheets and film rolls. The optical subsystem consists of a C-Cam Technologies CMOS camera mounted to a Schneider telecentric Xenoplan lens and will be illuminated by a computer controlled LED. The maximum scanning area is 350mm × 350mm with a speed of 6 plates (240mm × 240mm) per hour. A first benchmark of a prototype ABL 3600 was done and the proposed illumination system tested as detailed below.

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