#BEST HUBBLE IMAGES SERIES#

This is an important distinction between photography and human vision, and is one of the key ways in which Hubble extends our ability to perceive the universe.įigure 2: A daguerreotype of the Moon taken by John Adams Whipple on Februat the Harvard College Observatory. Draper’s image of the moon was exposed for twenty minutes, collecting photons to reveal faint details in a way that our eyes cannot. Here we see for the first-time light captured in a way far removed from that of human vision. Using his 5-inch (13 cm) reflecting telescope, he gathered the light of the moon into a daguerreotype, forever capturing details of the cratered lunar surface (Gendler and Gabany 2015). The first successful astrophoto was taken by John William Draper in 1840, earning him the recognition of being known as the “First Astrophotographer” (Hughes 2015). The First AstrophotosĪrmed with this new photographic method, the first astrophotographers naturally aimed their telescopes at the nearest bright celestial objects, the moon and sun, in the hopes of recording their abundant light. The term “photography,” which means “writing with light,” was coined at this time by John Herschel (Ré 2010). This method uses an iodized silver plate to record the image, taking advantage of the light sensitivity of silver salts with the image preserved by bathing the plate in mercury vapor after the exposure is taken (Tenn 1989). In 1839 Louis Daguerre, in partnership with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, patented the daguerreotype. The first attempts to record light onto a photosensitive material were primitive and quickly degraded with time. That all changed starting in the 1800s with the development of the ability to permanently capture light in an image. Both methods are largely subjective, leaving a lot of room for interpretation–or even error–on the part of the observer. The refractor was eventually superseded by the reflector due to issues of weight and calibration.įigure 1: Refractor vs Reflector diagram from įor hundreds of years after Galileo’s invention of the telescope, the only way to record telescopic observations was to make intricate sketches and take detailed notes. A refractor uses large glass lenses to focus incoming light to a point, and a reflector uses concave mirrors to bounce and focus light. At this point, it is worth pointing out that you will see two different types of telescopes described going forward: the refractor and the reflector. My intent here is to provide a timeline of the most important advances and “greatest hits” in the ever-evolving development of astrophotography within the larger context of truth in photography. This post is by no means a comprehensive history of astrophotography, nor does it explore the important topics of spectroscopy or photometry which both developed concurrently with astrophotography. In exploring this question, I find it helpful to gain a historical perspective of the incremental advances in photographic and telescopic technology that led to the development and launch of Hubble. Given how far-removed Hubble’s vision is from our own experience of looking up, it is only natural to question the reality of these images.

Hubble’s clarity of vision and its vivid and colorful views of the cosmos are a relatively new phenomenon in the world of astrophotography. Indeed, for many thousands of years, and even in the humble beginnings of astrophotography, this was how humanity saw and interpreted the night sky. Even in the darkest skies I’ve ever seen, I’ve clearly seen the Milky Way, and countless stars with just barely discernible colors, but still, I do not see anything close to what Hubble sees. After all, when I step outside at night and look up, I see a mostly dark (or more likely light polluted) sky peppered with pinpoints of light. I remember seeing images like the now iconic Eagle Nebula as I was beginning my own journey into astrophysics and wondering how these images could possibly be real. Three decades is a long time, it covers the span of an entire generation a generation whose perception of what the universe looks like is inextricably linked to Hubble. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and is now approaching thirty-one years in orbit. In this post, we’ll take a brief look at the history of astrophotography in order to provide a historical context to Hubble.

#BEST HUBBLE IMAGES SERIES#

This series of posts is dedicated to the scrutiny of Hubble imagery and a broader discussion of the veracity of astronomical imagery.

Best hubble images