Generation of the IHW Comet Halley CD-ROM Archive

Abstract

The digital Archive of the IHW is a collection of 26 CD-ROMs containing the totality of data submitted by over 1500 observers of Comet Halley during its most recent apparition. The collection includes remote (mostly ground based) observations as well as measurements made in situ by the spacecraft that encountered the comet in March 1986. Only the set of 24 CD-ROMs that comprise the remote observations which were released in 1993 are discussed. The observations of Halley are collected chronologically on 23 CD-ROMs; an added volume (24) includes data from comets Giacobini-Zinner and Crommelin. The data were collected into nine disciplines of astronomical observations: Astrometry, Infrared Studies, Large-Scale Phenomena, Near Nucleus Studies, Photometry and Polarimetry, Radio Studies, Spectroscopy and Spectrophotometry, Amateur Observations, and Meteor Studies. Observations cover the time period from December 1981 through April 1989. There were over 60,000 individual observations recorded. The design and production of this collection is discussed as well as statistics giving the full scope of the data. Initially, the CD-ROMs are being distributed to all of the contributors who requested them from the IHW and to major astronomical facilities around the world. Additional copies of the set of 24 CD-ROMs can be obtained through the NASA Planetary Data System Small Bodies Node at the University of Maryland and/or NASA's National Space Sciences Data Center.