Konkoly wide-field plate archive

The wide-field photographic observations in Konkoly Observatory were performed in the period 1962 – 1997 with the 60/90/180 cm Schmidt telescope in Piszkestető Mountain Station. The archive of the telescope contains more than 13 000 observations described in the Konkoly plate catalogue. After the preparation of an enlarged version of the catalogue it has been incorporated in the Wide-Field Plate Database installed in the Sofia Sky Archive Data Center with a possible on-line search at http://www.skyarchive.org/search/. Results from the analysis of the catalogue data characterizing the observational activity at Konkoly in the period 1962 – 1997 are presented. 1. THE KONKOLY SCHMIDT TELESCOPE The main instrument for wide-field observations of Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the 60/90/180 cm Schmidt telescope, manufactured by Carl Zeiss Jena and put in operation in 1962. The telescope (Fig. 1) is located in the Piszkestető Mountain Station of the Konkoly Observatory at about 120 km North-East of Budapest, in the Matra Mountains (coordinates: λ = 1953.7 E, φ = +4755.1) at 958 m altidude. The main characteristics of the telescope are: clear aperture 0.60 m, mirror diameter – 0.90 m, focal length – 1.80 m, scale – 115/mm, and field size – 5 (circular field with diameter 15 cm). Up to the beginning of 1997 the telescope was used with photographic plates for direct observations or with 2 and 5 objective prisms. The following Kodak emulsions were used: 103aO, IIaO, OAO, 103aJ, IIIaJ, 103aG, 103aD, IIaD, OAD, 103aF, IIIaF,