Abstract Title: *
THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ODESSA COLLECTION OF ASTROPHOTONEGATIVES

Authors: *
Svitlana Kashuba(1), Natalya Bazyey(1) and MilchoTsvetkov(2,3)
(1) Astronomical Observatory of Odessa National University, 65014 Odessa, Ukraine 
(2) Astronomical Institute with National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria 
(3) Institute ofMathematics and Informatics,, Bulgarian Academy Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

Institution: *
Astronomical Observatory of Odessa National University, 65014 Odessa, Ukraine

Preferred format: *
Oral

Abstract Text: *
 We present the current status, tasks and opportunities of the Odessa Astronomical
observatory at the Mechnikov Odessa National University plate collection. It contains one of the
most valuable plate archives as it is listed in the WFPDB (wfpdb.org) with more than 100000
plates - the second plate collection in Europe after the Sonneberg plate collection with 250 000
pates and the third in the world after the Harvard plate collection with 500 000 plates. The
Odessa plate collection provides an opportunity to follow a brightness history of selected sky
objects during an almost 100-year period. We describe the plans of the observatory of salvaging
this important world astronomical heritage and the first steps of digitization of an important part
of the plate collection. The inventory and incorporation of the metadata from the logbooks in the
computer readable form according to the International Virtual Observatory and the WFPDB
standards are discussed.