'Catchers of the Light'
- The Definitive History of Astrophotography
Extracts from the forthcoming Book by Dr. Stefan Hughes, BSc., MA, Ph.D.
... former NASA Project Scientist and Professional Astronomer
Preface
I was twelve years old when I first looked up at the stars and wondered.
From the hill high above my house I used to stand night after night under dark skies and dreamed of all the wonderful photographs I had seen in my books - of other galaxies far beyond our own milky way, of glowing clouds of gas, clusters containing stars far too many to count and the mystical dark clouds through which no stars could shine.
Images of the Great Andromeda Spiral, the Great Orion Nebula and the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules and the most iconic of them all – the ‘Horse Head’ filled my head as I lay beneath the stars all those years ago.
I used to think that the people who made all this possible were famous scientists – household names. They had to be - after all they had captured in these magnificent photographs the true nature of our universe. Yet the truth is so very different.
How many of you have heard of a clockmaker called William Bond, a doctor named Henry Draper, the brothers Paul and Prosper Henry, the priest Angelo Secchi or the housemaid Williamina Fleming? These were the true pioneers of Astrophotography - whose names have long been forgotten and confined to the closed pages of history.
Although it is over forty years since I first stood upon that hill, it is only now that I am able to repay them for what they gave to me. I can think of no better way than to tell the story of their lives; not in the language of a scientist but in ordinary words; befitting these ordinary people who did such extraordinary things.
I stood upon that silent hill
And stared into the sky until
My eyes were blind with stars and still
I stared into the sky
The Song of Honour
Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962), English Poet
Contents
Preface
About the Book
This Book is a ‘Family History’ of Astrophotography, and tells the story of the lives and achievements of the great pioneers of Astrophotography.
It is not meant to be an academic treatise of their work; this is best left to papers written for eminent scientific journals and societies.
It is however about the events that shaped them and their immediate families; where they were born, who their parents were, where they went to school, who they married, the telescopes they owned, the astronomical photographs they took, their successes and failures; and the legacy they left to the modern world.
Each chapter of the Book is devoted to a particular Astrophotographer and includes their ‘Family Tree’ as well as a ‘Notes’ section containing background information on subjects relating to their life and the sources of information used in telling their story.
The Book has been further divided into nine self contained parts, each devoted to a particular aspect of the history of astrophotography and the pioneers who contributed to it. Each part ends with a ‘Summary’ chapter which brings together the ‘threads’ discussed in the chapters on the individual pioneers.
The parts cover every aspect of the subject from the early photographers, the first astronomical photographs of the Moon, Sun and Planets, the Deep Space Astrophotography of nebulae and galaxies, Astronomical Spectroscopy; as well as the development of the Astrograph (Photographic Telescope) culminating in the ‘hi-tech’ Hubble and Herschel Space Telescopes.
A number of Appendices are included which contain more detailed information on topics such as the optical systems of astrographs, photographic processes, e.g. heliographs, calotypes, daguerreotypes, wet & dry collodions etc.
A Glossary of Terms used in the book is also included, as is a timeline summarizing the historical development of astrophotography.
The reader can choose which part to read either in sequence, in the order that takes their interest or any chapter of their choosing. They will lose nothing no matter how they read the book or in what order.
Furthermore the book can be used at a number of levels; either as a biography of the lives of pioneers of astrophotography, a source of reference for a student or researcher; and finally as a technical compendium of the historical development of photographic equipment, processes and techniques.
Hyperlinks to those parts of the Book which have been completed are included in the Contents.
How to Become a Great Astrophotographer
Part I: 'Firstlight' - The Origins of Astrophotography
Abstract
Every day our eyes catch the light of our memories – time spent with family, the journey to work, a special holiday, a beautiful sunset or a dark starlit night. Each image captured is a picture drawn in light – a photograph: only to be lost in our minds or forever forgotten.
Some two hundred years ago a small group of amateur scientists achieved what had eluded mankind for centuries – the ability to capture a permanent record of an image seen by their own eyes – a moment in time frozen onto a surface. They had discovered Photography. They were the ‘Catchers of the Light’.
The first part of our story of Astrophotography begins with the lives and achievements of three of these early photographic pioneers. Of the three only one will probably be known to you – the great French showman Louis Daguerre.
The other two lesser known pioneers.
The first of them, Frederick Scott Archer was responsible for the invention of the Wet Collodion process in 1851; which revolutionized the ‘Art’ of Photography bringing it within the reach of the ordinary man as well as enabling astronomers for the first time to use photographs in their research to useful effect.
The other was Richard Leach Maddox who developed the so called Dry Gelatin Photographic Plate, which enabled astronomers to take detailed images of the almost infinite number of Nebulae and Galaxies which are to be found in the deepest recesses of our universe.
A discussion of the Photographic Processes and Technologies used by Astronomers ends Part I.
Possibly the ‘first’ ever photograph – Thomas Wedgwood c1800?
I.1 Louis Jacques Armand Daguerre (1787 – 1851)
I.2 Frederick Scott Archer (1814 - 1857)
I.3 Richard Leach Maddox (1816 - 1902)
I.4 Astronomical Photographic Processes & Technologies
Part II: 'Moonlight' - Lunar Astrophotography
II.1 John William Draper (1811 - 1882)
II.2 Moritz Loewy (1833 - 1907)
II.3 Pierre Henry Puiseux (1855 - 1928)
II.4 William Henry Pickering (1858 - 1938)
II.5 Lunar Photographic Atlases
Part III: 'Sunlight' - Solar Astrophotography
III.1 Armand Hippolyte Fizeau (1819 - 1896) & Jean Bernhard Foucault (1819 - 1868)
III.2 Warren de La Rue (1815 - 1889)
III.3 Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen (1824 - 1907)
III.4 Solar Photographic Surveys
Part IV: 'Planets & Comets' - Solar System Astrophotography
IV.1 John Adams Whipple (1822 - 1891)
IV.2 William Usherwood (1821 - 1915)
IV.3 Paul Henry (1848 - 1905) & Prosper Henry (1849 - 1903)
IV.4 Maximillian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (1863 - 1922)
IV.5 Imaging the Solar System
Part V: 'Starlight' - Deep Space Astrophotography
V.1 William Cranch Bond (1789 - !859)
V.2 George Phillips Bond (1825 - 1865)
V.3 Benjamin Apthorp Gould (1824 - 1896)
V.4 Henry Draper (1837 - 1882)
V.5 Isaac Roberts (1829 - 1904)
V.6 James Edward Keeler (1857 - 1900)
V.7 William Edward Wilson (1851- 1908)
V.8 Edward Emerson Barnard (1857 - 1923)
V.9 Williamina Fleming (1857 - 1911)
V.10 Photographing DSOs
Part VI: 'Spectra' - Astronomical Spectroscopy
VI.1 Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787 - 1826)
VI.2 Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816 - 1892)
VI.3 Angelo Secchi (1818 - 1878)
VI.4 William Huggins (1824 - 1910) & Margaret Huggins (1848 - 1915)
VI.5 Edward Charles Pickering (1846 - 1919)
VI.6 Hermann Carl Vogel (1841 - 1907)
VI.7 Joseph Scheiner (1858 - 1913)
VI.8 Milton Lasell Humason (1891- 1972)
VI.9 Edwin Powell Hubble (1889 - 1953)
VI.10 Understanding the Universe
Part VII: 'Carte du Ciel' - Charting the Heavens
VII.1 Amedee Mouchez (1821 - 1892)
VII.2 David Gill (1843 - 1914)
VII.3 Photographic Sky Surveys
Part VIII: 'Astrograph' - Photography and the Telescope
VIII.1 William Parsons (1800 - 1867)
VIII.2 Andrew Ainslie Common (1841 - 1903)
VIII.3 Bernhard Schmidt (1879 - 1935)
VIII.4 George Willis Ritchey (1864 - 1945)
VIII.5 Henri Chretien (1879 - 1956)
VIII.6 Journey to the Space Telescope
Part IX: 'Digital' - Modern CCD Astrophotography
IX.1 Modern Astrophotographers - Jack Newton, David Malin, Robert Gendler
IX.2 Modern Astrophotography - The Horse's Head
Appendices
Appendix A - Astrophotography Timeline
Appendix B - 109 Important Astronomical Photographs - The 'A' List
Appendix C – The Chemistry of Photographic Processes
Appendix D - TelescopeOptical Systems
Appendix E - The CCD
Appendix F – Glossary of Terms
References
Index
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