Looking for photographic glass plates of the night sky

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Coming up in June, we are hosting Sally’s Night at the museum. One of the activities that we had planned involves glass photographic plates and star categorization, highlighting the early women in astronomy who worked with these types of plates. We had contacted an observatory that was selling them to collectors, but plans fell through and we cannot get them shipped here. We have looked for other options online and can’t find anything that will work.

Does anyone in the club have an idea of where I might be able to find some to purchase, or does anyone possibly own any themselves that they would be willing to show on display at the activity table?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Where are they and how much do they want for a plate?

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It was a sponsorship for a small observatory in NSW, Australia. They were selling them for $20/each, but they are no longer shipping to the US. They said the shipping prices were exorbitant and that it was almost impossible to ship them overseas without them breaking.

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@astrowaylon, I saw them displayed at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff (along with their comparator). You might give them a call for help.

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Thanks for the suggestion! We ended up finding some glass plates of the total eclipse in 1918 that we were able to purchase. It’s not exactly what we were looking for, but it works.

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