Astrophotography Gallery: Ten Pioneering Images
Overview
On January 7, 1839, members of the French Academies des Sciences were shown by Francois Arago products of an invention that would forever change the study of astronomy - photography.
The astonishingly precise pictures they saw were the work of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a Romantic painter and printmaker most famous until then as the proprietor of the Diorama, a popular Parisian spectacle featuring theatrical painting and lighting effects.
Each daguerreotype (as Daguerre dubbed his invention) was a ‘one of a kind image on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper. It was the Polaroid of the day.
Even Arago, the then director of the Observatoire de Paris, was reportedly surprised by a daguerreotype image of the moon (which has not survived).
Neither Daguerre's microscopic nor his telescopic daguerreotypes survive, for on March 8, 1839, the Diorama—and with it Daguerre's laboratory—burned to the ground, destroying the inventor's written records and the bulk of his early experimental works.
In fact, fewer than twenty-five securely attributed photographs by Daguerre survive—a mere handful of still life, Parisian views, and portraits from the dawn of photography.
1. 1840: Moon; John William Draper
On March 23, 1840, after a number of unsuccessful attempts, John William Draper (1811-1882) reported, at a meeting of the New York Lyceum of Natural history, later to become the New York Academy of Sciences, that he had been successful in utilizing a 13cm Reflector Telescope and a small daguerreotype camera to photograph the Moon’s surface on one inch diameter plates with a twenty minute exposure.
This was the first successful photograph ever taken of an astronomical object.
2. 1845: Sun; Jean Foucault and Armand Fizeau
According to Francois Arago, a large number of daguerreotypes of the sun were obtained by Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (1819-1896) and Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819-1868) at the Paris observatory. One of these photographs, taken on April 2, 1845, still survives and is shown below.
This is the earliest surving photograph ever taken of the Sun showing its spots as well.
3. 1851: Total Solar Eclipse; M. Berkowski
A daguerreotype photograph of a total eclipse of the Sun from Kšnigsberg, Prussia was obtained by a Mr. M. Berkowski, recording the inner corona and several prominences on 28th July 1851.
This is the first photograph ever taken of a Total Eclipse of the Sun.
4. 1857: Mizar & Alcor; George Phillips Bond
In 1857 George Philips Bond (1825-1865), the son of William Cranch Bond) produced a wet collodion photographs of the double star Mizar (Zeta Uma) and Alcor (80 Uma) using the 15” (38 cm) ‘Great Harvard Refractor.
This was the first successful attempt at photographing a double star and more importantly its fainter companion.
5. 1880: M42 - 'Great Orion Nebula'; Henry Draper
On the 30th September 1880 Henry Draper (1837-1882) photographed the Great Orion Nebula (M42) using his 11” Alvan Clark Refractor with an exposure of 57 minutes, from his Observatory at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
This was the very first photograph ever taken of a Deep Sky Object.
In March 1881 he took an even better photograph of M42 with an exposure of 104 minutes, and a year later in March 1882 he produced a third photograph, extending the exposure of M42 to 137 minutes.
6. 1886: Jupiter; Paul Henry and Prosper Henry
In the years 1885-86 the french astronomer brothers' Paul and Prosper Henry took a series of photographs of the planets, when they imaged Jupiter and Saturn.
These photographs were the first successful images ever taken of a Planet
Prior to this time others had tried including contemporary pioneers like Warren de La Rue, but failed; his images of 1857 were only ½ mm across, and were therefore barely visible!
7. 1888: B33 ‘Horsehead’; Williamina Fleming
In 1888 Williamina Fleming was to make a discovery which astrophotographers all around the world will thank her for (and curse her just as much!).
The dark nebula B33 was first noticed that year by her on photographic plate B2312 taken at the Harvard College Observatory. It was afterwards to become universally known as the ‘Horsehead’ Nebula.
Plate 2312 was taken with 90 minute exposure using the Harvard Observatory's 8” Bache Telescope at Arequipa in Peru. The plate covered an area of sky about 10 degrees square, of which the inner 7 degrees provides good definition.
This was the first ever photograph taken of the most iconic all astronomical objects – the famous ‘Horsehead’ Nebula.
8. 1892: Rho Ophiuchi Nebula; Edward Emerson Barnard
During the period 1892 to 1895 Edward Emerson Barnard began taking a series of wide field images using the Crocker Astrograph at Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton California.
These included many famous clusters, galaxies and nebulae including, M45 (Pleiades), M42 (Great Orion), M8 (Lagoon Nebula), M31 (Great Andromeda Spiral) and the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula (IC 4604).
These images were the first truly widewield images ever taken, each inch on the photographic plate amounted to almost four full moons across.
9. 1899: M101; James Edward Keeler
The series of photographs taken by James Edward Keeler and Charles Dillon Perrine during the period 1898 to 1903 using the 36” Crossley Reflector firmly established the supremacy of large silvered mirrored telescopes over the large refractor for Deep Sky astrophotography.
These images included famous Messier objects like M13 (Great Hercules Cluster), M20 (Trifid Nebula), M42 (Great Orion Nebula) and M101 (featured here), as well as less well known objects such as NGC 4631 (Whale Galaxy), NGC 7023 (Iris Nebula) and NGC 1977 (Running Man Nebula).
10. 1900: Moon Atlas (1910); Moritz Loewy and Pierre Puiseux
In the period 1894 to 1910, Moritz Loewy (1833-1907) and Pierre-Henri Puiseux (1855-1928) obtain 6000 photographs, over 500 nights of the Moon using the 60 cm Paris observatory Coudé refractor.
These images were used to create the first detailed atlas of the Moon - L'Atlas Photographique de la Lune, which was edited by the Paris Observatory between the years 1896 to 1910.
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