  As research datasets and analyses grow in complexity, data that could be
valuable to other researchers and to support the integrity of published work
remain uncurated across disciplines. These data are especially concentrated in
the Long Tail of funded research, where curation resources and related
expertise are often inaccessible. In the domain of astronomy, it is undisputed
that uncurated dark data exist, but the scope of the problem remains uncertain.
The Astrolabe Project is a collaboration between University of Arizona
researchers, the CyVerse cyberinfrastructure environment, and American
Astronomical Society, with a mission to identify and ingest
previously-uncurated astronomical data, and to provide a robust computational
environment for analysis and sharing of data, as well as services for authors
wishing to deposit data associated with publications. Following expert feedback
obtained through two workshops held in 2015 and 2016, Astrolabe is funded in
part by National Science Foundation. The system is being actively developed
within CyVerse, and Astrolabe collaborators are soliciting heterogeneous
datasets and potential users for the prototype system. Astrolabe team members
are currently working to characterize the properties of uncurated astronomical
data, and to develop automated methods for locating potentially-useful data to
be targeted for ingest into Astrolabe, while cultivating a user community for
the new data management system.
