Digitized images of Supernova 1972E

This dataset provides the images used in the paper "Blast From the Past: Constraining Progenitor Models of SN 1972E" found at https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.07796. We include images of 17 plates: CTIO plate 2207 (plate logs at http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/node/189), and ESO plates 250, 251, 252, 254, 255, 290, 291, 292, 294, 295, 296, 318, 328, 489, 493, and 530 (searchable by plate number at http://archive.eso.org/wdb/wdb/eso/eso_schmidt/form). We used the upgraded ROB Digitizer of the Royal Observatory of Belguim (Details at http://espace.oma.be/science/rob-facilities.html) to digitize the region around NGC 5253, archived as negative photographic densities on original ESO Schmidt (ESOS) 300mmx300mm and 0.8mm thick bended glass plates. Each Schmidt plate was mounted on the Aerotech ABL3600 air-bearing XY-table by pressing it pneumatically between a supporting and a counter-pressure plate in order to flatten the glass for precise focusing of the emulsion. The air bearing XY-axes had a positional stability in time in both axes of better than 35 nm. NGC 5253 was centered in the field of view of the 12bit grey-scale CMOS BCi4-6600 camera (2208x3000 pixels of 3.5µmx3.5µm) mounted on the new purpose build two-sided 1:1 telecentric objective with no measurable (0.1µm) optical distortion in this 7.7 mm by 10.5 mm field of view, corresponding to the same area on the plates. With the plate-scale of 67.4 arcsec/mm of the ESO Schmidt telescope this corresponds to 236 mas/pixel and a sky coverage of 521"x708". We used an adapted integration time to keep the sky density just below the saturation limit to maximize the dynamic grey-scale density range. Each digitized image is composed of 32 identical camera exposures in order to minimize the illumination, rolling shutter, and shot noise. We digitized the CTIO plate using a Gagne Porta-trace LED light panel, a Canon 5DS EOS DSLR, and a 100 mm Zeiss Makro-Planar lens. We provide three identical camera exposures.