Abstract
A brief description is given of the origin of Kapteyn’s “Plan of Selected Areas” in which he proposed that the structure of the Galaxy could be determined by taking samples at regularly spaced intervals across the sky. The Plan was also a call for international co-operation to expedite specific programs.
Many observatories embraced the Plan and worked on these programs. The Selected Areas also provided photometric calibration and other support for observational programs other than those in Kapteyn’s original proposal. Examples were Fath’s early galaxy counts and the early studies of faint blue stars. Baade’s thoughts on the Mount Wilson work in Selected Areas and the importance and difficulties of early photometric work are discussed. The call for co-operation and co-ordination in Galactic research that was implicit in Kapteyn’s Proposal was renewed at IAU Symposium No.1 (Groningen in 1955). The Palomar-Groningen variable star survey, proposed at this conference, was an example of this new type of co-ordination.
Operated by the Association of Universities for Resarch in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.
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Kinman, T.D. (2000). Kapteyn and the Selected Areas: A Personal Perspective. In: The Legacy of J.C. Kapteyn. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 246. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9864-9_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9864-9_10
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