Storage titan EMC has done a really wild random act of kindness.

Ok maybe not wildly random, but it is pretty cool.

The vendor has donated $70,000 to help the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) digitize 150 years worth of historic astronomical information ---- about 100 terabytes.

PARI is an EMC customer. The organization helps organizations "collect humanity’s information heritage," according to a press release, and make information accessible online for research and education purposes.

Part of that "information heritage" work involves star research.

The donation was made through EMC's Information Heritage Initiative, and included an EMC CLARiiON networked storage system and EMC Navisphere software. T

The information infrastructure will support the Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration program, which enables PARI and volunteers from the general public to classify astronomical research data.

PARI was founded in 1998 in North Carolina to further science technology, engineering and math education and research for students, astronomers and the general public.

Nice gesture EMC.