Comment on “The Digitization of Photographic Spectra in the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory Plate Collection with Commercial Scanners: A Pilot Study” (2024, AJ, 167, 249) by T. J. Davidge

Abstract The paper by T. J. Davidge (2024, AJ, 167, 249) describes experiments to digitize and interpret the digitization of photographic spectra of the bright A0 dwarf Vega using a high-end, flat-bed commercial scanner. While a flat-bed scanner achieves a huge gain in speed compared with what the purpose-built microdensitometer PDS could accomplish, his paper does not offer convincing benefits of the science which methods such as his could produce. This “Comment” explains the important issues that have been identified, and concludes that all is neither as trivial nor as simple as Davidge suggests.