Jordan Cox



Author Denis Crawford of Nature Photographers calls the relationship between Photography and Astronomy a “marriage made in heaven”, pointing out that the links between the early development of photography and astronomy are profound. The connectivity of these endeavors has produced a genre of image capturing called Astrophotography-the photography of celestial objects such as the moon, stars, and distant galaxies. This unique combination of science and art have been inextricably linked since astronomer Sir John Herschel (the son of Astronomer Royal, Sir William Herschel) publicly first used the word “photography”, which means “writing with light”, at a lecture before the Royal Society on March 14, 1839. It can be understood, therefore, that “the history of astrophotography cannot be separated from that of general photography, each helping to improve the processes and techniques of the other.”(2)Since the beginning of the technology, advances in general photography has linked closely with advances in astrophotography. In some instances the pioneers of the fields were the same, or held a collegial relationship with one another. In some cases, those credited for historic discoveries were biologically related. Further connectivity is evident in a review of historic progress in the related fields, revealing that an advance or “find” in one endeavor has spurred forward the other. For example, Joseph Niepce is generally credited with capturing the first permanent image in 1826 with a view from his window at Le Gras, France. In 1829, Niepce and Frenchman Louis Daguerre signed a 10 year agreement to work in partnership to develop this new recording medium. By 1837 Louis Daguerre created images on silver-plated copper, coated with silver iodide and processed or “developed” with warm mercury. Two years later in 1839, he patented this process called the “daguerreotype.” It was the role played by the French government, however, that was key in securing the release of this new process to the general public, led most notably by mathematician, politician and astronomer, Fran?ois Jean Dominique Arago. Arago, the former director of the Paris Observatory first announced the daguerreotype process at the French Academy of Sciences in January and again in August of 1839. In return for public use of the discovery, it was his political advocacy that helped provide an annual state pension from the French government of 6,000 francs ($1,200) to Daguerre and 4,000 ($800) to Isidore Niepce, the son of Daguerre’s deceased former partner. The former sum was eventually increased to 10,000 francs. ($2,000) As evidence of Arago’s legacy, craters on the moon, Mars, and a ring on the planet Nepture are named in his honor. It was Arago who encouraged Daguerre to attempt to photograph the moon in January of 1839. Daguerre’s try was unsuccessful as he obtained a blurred white image.In the United States, the following year, using Daguerre’s process, John William Draper obtained a correctly exposed image of the moon. An early U.S. manufacturer of the chemicals used in the Daguerrotyping process was John Adams Whipple. He along with William Cranch Bond, the first director of the Harvard Observatory, collaborated to obtain a series of lunar daguerreotypes during the period of 1849-1852. On July 17th, 1850, the pair captured the first photograph of a star, a Lyrae, Vega using the 38 cm refractor at the Harvard Observatory. Both physicists and photographers, Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau and Jean Bernard Léon worked together on experiments related to the speed of light and ultimately obtained images of the sun. Encouraged by Francois Aragot, Fizeau initially made an improvement on the daguerreotype process. Fizeau substituted bromine for the iodine used by Daguerre, which produced shaper images. His friendship with Léon Foucault, also a fellow enthusiast of daguerreotyping allowed them to collaborate together to produce the first authentic photograph of the sun on April 2, 1845. (#?)In 1851 Fredrick Scott Archer’s contribution of the collodion process, or “wet-plate” process hastened a journal entry by William Bond on March 22nd while working with Whipple. “Succeeded in Daguerreotyping Jupiter. Six plates were taken by Whipple and “could distinguish the two principal equatorial belts – Time about as long as the Moon required or not much longer”.” (#?) Just over four months after Bond and Whipple successful captured pictures of the solar system’s largest planet, the first correctly-exposed photograph of the solar corona and several provences was made during the total phase of the solar eclipse on July 28, 1851 at K?nigsberg (now Kaliningrad) by a local daguerreotypist named M.Berkowski.(#?)In 1857, George Philips Bond, the son of William Cranch Bond produced wet collodion photographs of the double star Mizar (Zeta Uma) and Alcor (80 Uma) using the same 38 cm Harvard refractor as his father. It was on September 30, 1880 that “holy grail” of astrophotography was achieved according to _________ (#?). Henry Draper, the son of John William Draper, obtained the first ever successful image of a deep space object, the “Great Orion” Nebula, M42. While Draper’s deep space object was widely heralded , it was the discovery of James Clerk Maxwell almost twenty years earlier that laid the ground work for color photography principles still used today in astrophotgraphy. His demonstration involved a color photography system involving black and white photos taken through colored filters. “This process is the same used today by modern astrophotographers who now use specialized CCD cameras with electronic filter wheels containing LRGB filters.” (#?) Maxwell’s discovery came in 1861.Later inventions like George Eastman’s handheld cameras and film produced by his Kodak Company, and advances in other sciences additionally advanced astrophotography. Rocket flight into space ultimately led to manned space flights which both allowed for advances in astrophotogaphy, and by virtue, photography as a whole.On October 24, 1946, not long after the end of World War II and years before the Sputnik satellite opened the space age, a group of soldiers and scientists in the New Mexico desert saw something new and wonderful—the first pictures of Earth as seen from space. The grainy, black-and-white photos were taken from an altitude of 65 miles by a 35-millimeter motion picture camera riding on a V-2 missile launched from the White Sands Missile Range. Snapping a new frame every second and a half, the rocket-borne camera climbed straight up, then fell back to Earth minutes later, slamming into the ground at 500 feet per second. The camera itself was smashed, but the film, protected in a steel cassette, was unharmed. (#?)The first satellite images of the earth were obtained in 1959, from the U.S. satellite Explorer 6. As part of the great space race, A Soviet satellite captured the first satellite photograph of the moon a few months later. In April of 1961, the satellite Tirios 1 produced an image of the earth.(#?) Now, digital images produced from satellites are so common place that well known internet search engines provide images to computer users.Records related to space flight and the astrophotography that was birthed during these flights clearly indicated that capturing images was an extremely low priority, but that has changed drastically in recent years for varied reasons. “Difficult as it may now seem to believe, the idea of taking a camera on board the first manned space flights was almost considered superfluous to requirements.” ( #? ) In 1961, because of weight and interior space restrictions in the capsule, astronaut John Glenn, who was the first person to be launched into orbit was only armed with a simple point-and-shoot 35 millimeter camera preloaded with Kodak film. Now, for example, Space Shuttle crews receive an entire week of photographic training prior to their space missions and carry with them extensive amounts of photographic equipment. Operating outside the earth’s atmosphere, the Shuttle is subject to relatively high levels of natural radiation. It doesn't harm the astronauts, but it could possibly create fog or color shifts in some types of film, and scientists do extensive testing on the film prior to taking it into space.(#?) They also use digital cameras, which interestingly, had their beginnings the same year Glenn made it into space. Eugene Lally of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, presented the design of the first digital camera in 1961, but it was Steven Sasson who is credited with producing the first digital camera while working for Eastman Kodak in 1975. (#?)Although not the first space telescope, in 1990, the HST or Hubble Space Telescope was launched placing the most versatile and largest image and data capturing telescopic device in space. Although much more complex, the electronic detectors attached to the cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope use principles similar to Maxwell’s discovery 150 years earlier to produce the stunning digital “colored” images viewed today. The Hubble's many filters allow it to record images in a variety of wavelengths of light, including those invisible to the naked eye. The celestial objects often look different in different wavelengths of light, however, the most popular or recognizable modern photos are a combination of the red, green, and blue filtered light the same principle on which Maxwell’s discovery was founded. (#? And #?) “The captured images are represented in shades of black and white, and the colour is added during image processing.” (#?)From the earliest astrophotographs, which were in many instances captured by professional scientists, but “amateur” photographers, stunning images continued to be obtained by amateurs. These individuals are able to utilize the advances in technology and their affinity for their hobby to produce increasingly scientifically relevant pictures and artistic images of celestial objects. Advances in telescopic, computer, and camera technology also allow amateurs to inexpensively pursue images and also attract new enthusiasts. “Today quite a few amateurs produce images that twenty years ago a large professional observatory would have been proud of.” (#?)There are various methodologies used by amateur astrophotographers. Simply explained, to begin, astrophotographers choose to use SLR (Single Lens Reflex) or film-type cameras for their work, which are less expensive than the required digital counterpart or a more costly SLR (Single Lens Reflex) digital camera. The more affordable point and shoot digital cameras aren’t well suited for the requirements of astrophotgraphy because of the need to couple with a telescope. The lens of the camera is removed and a “t-adapter” (telescope adapter) is attached allowing the camera to actually be coupled to an appropriate telescope. The eye-piece of the telescope is removed and via the t-adapter, the camera is attached. This essentially allows the telescope to be the lens of the camera. A telescope is not essential to take quality astrophotographs, but generally recommended, as is a tripod for stability. “The sturdier the better. Make sure that you can point them upwards without the handle hitting other parts of the tripod. Taller ones make it easier to look through when composing. Like telescope mountings, a stiff sturdy mount makes use of the camera that much easier and more efficient.” (#?)Longer exposures are needed to capture quality images, however, the self-timer on many cameras will open the shutter for up to 30-seconds and for longer exposures, a change to a different setting on the camera is possible, allowing the astrophotographer to manually release the shutter. This can be problematic because of the movement often caused by the users hand on the mounted camera. “… there is no way you can do this with your finger and not move the telescope during a long exposure. So you will need some type of remote release such as a wired remote. These usually plug into the side of the camera.” (#?) Two ways to control the camera on long exposures are through a programmable remote release or via computer which can offer combination software to even move the telescope and camera to “track” the sky for extra long exposures. It can even aid in focusing the camera.Users then select an appropriate shooting location to eliminate as much “noise” from nearby lights as possible. Dark, rural locations are often suggested. For users with film cameras, choosing the right film rated for the conditions of exposure is critical as “…the exposures need to be fairly short and the stars are faint this necessitates the use of a fast film, typically over 400 ISO. It you tried to use a slow film you may only record the brightest of the stars, or none at all. A good film to start with would be around 1000 ISO slide film, I say slide film in preference to print film because most processing labs do not do justice to images of the night sky.” (#?)Whether choosing the methodology previously described or choosing an alternative method of astrophotography like a very inexpensive web-cam, amateurs are able to produce stunning images, in many cases, rivaling what a professional observatory might have produced in the not so distant past. David Malin of Anglo-Australian Observatory, RMIT University and Dennis DiCicco of Sky Publishing Corporation suggest, “These developments reflect the enduring interest in the sky that has sustained amateur astroimaging for many generations. Making images of the fleeting stars and distant planets is not easy, and it attracts people who enjoy a challenge.” (#?).That same sentiment was the basis for the beginnings of the genre of astrophotography. Throughout its history advancement has come “hand-in-hand” with advances in astronomy and general photography with amateurs and professionals sharing successes in their progress. BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 Abrams, P. (2000). The Early History of Astrophotography. Timeline. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2009, from : , D. (2009, June 20). Who Invented the Digital Camera. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from -Intelligent Life on the Web: , D. (2008, October). Photography and Astronomy - a Marriage Made in Heaven. Nature Photographers Online Magazine .Dominique Francois Jean Arago. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2009, from Classic Enclyclopedia - based on the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica 1911: , D. (n.d.). Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association. Retrieved October 19, 2009, from : , J. (n.d.). Catching the Light-Astrophotography Techniques - Quick Start Guide Part 2. Retrieved October 23, 2009, from : , D., & Di Ciccco, D. (n.d.). Astrophotography - The Amateur Connection, The Roles of Photography in Professional Astronomy, Challenges and Changes. Retrieved October 19, 2009, from encyclopedia.articles/pages: ">Astrophotography - The Amateur Connection, The Roles of Photography in Professional Astronomy, Challenges and ChangesOates, M. (n.d.). Getting Started in Astrophotography. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from Manastro.co.uk: Plates. (2006). Retrieved October 21, 2009, from Astro-Canada.ca: in Space. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2009, from : , P. (2009). History of Astrophotgraphy. Retrieved October 24, 2009, from : , P. (n.d.). History of Astrophotgraphy Timeline. Retrieved October 24, 2009, from : , T. (2006, November). The First Photo From Space . Air & Space Magazine Smithsonian .Schielicke, R., & Wittman, A. D. (2005). On the Berkowski daguerreotype (K?nigsberg, 1851 July 28): the first correctly-exposed photograph of the solar corona. Acta Historica Astronomiae , 25, 128-147.Seip, S. (n.d.). Stefan Seip-Astrophotographer. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from : odessey. (2007, May). Geographical .Space odyssey (.space photography). (2007, May). Geographical .The Daguerreian Society. (2009, September). Photography in the United States. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from : Meaning of Color in Hubble Images. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2009, from : ................
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