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Reading Nature, Observing Science: Examining Material Practices in the Lick Observatory Archives and Kenneth S. Norris Papers

Case 3: Illustrating and Photographing the Cosmos

Illustrating the Cosmos

Click the above link to read more about this topic. The top shelf of case 3 displays a selection of astronomical illustrations from the Lick Observatory archives. Notably, the archives contain sketches and correspondence from famous astronomical illustrator Étienne Trouvelot, as well as illustrations created by astronomers at the Lick. Additionally, astronomers kept personal scrapbooks and copybooks, in which they recorded their observations both numerically and pictorially, using sketches, light distribution charts, and even vividly descriptive notes alongside measurement logs. Charles D. Perrine's copybook and Edward Holden's scrapbook are displayed in Case 1: In Relation to Nature.

Did the ideas and images offered by artists like Trouvelot have an impact on the way astronomers at the Lick perceived the cosmos? Can astronomical illustrations count as factual data? Can objective observation be disentangled from aesthetic experience?

Photographing the Cosmos

Click the above link to read more about this topic. The middle and bottom shelves of case 3 display documents, images, and objects related to the early astrophotographic work of the Lick Observatory. While astronomers at the Lick spent much of their time studying bodies in the solar system, discovering many planetary satellites in the process, they focused on using their telescopes to photograph objects that are not visible to the naked eye, like nebulae and galaxies. In fact, several of these structures were not visible even through the telescope; many structures were discovered when their light was detected through the long exposures of the telescope's camera. N.B.: At the time, any distant, large grouping of stars was referred to as a "nebula"; many of these structure are now identified as galaxies.

Is it possible to obtain "objective" representations of distant celestial objects? How was the ideal of producing purely objective data filtered through the aesthetic concern to produce visually stunning photographs? How is our idea of what is real and what is not real in the cosmos--then, as now--a matter of aesthetic expectations, standards, and conventions of representation?

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2. Velvet Cases The first velvet case contains a chest of slides from Norris's slide collection. This chest has a handwritten inventory, although there is a notable discrepancy between the actual slides in the chest and the titles listed on the inventory sheet. Twelve of the slides from the chest are featured in the listed images. They document various species of lizards, snakes, frogs, and toads, as well as desert habitats throughout California, New Mexico, and Baja California. As the majority of these slides are dated 1948, they are representative of Norris's work in desert ecology during his studies at UCLA. These velvet cases also contain atlases from UCSC Special Collections that pertain to the theme of Reading Nature.
4. Case 2: Natural History, Pedagogy, and Echolocation
6. Case 4: Eclipse Expeditions in Context The photographs and prints gathered in this case pertain to the eclipse expedition program that the Lick astronomers undertook between 1889 and 1932. For the majority of these journeys, the astronomers used a 40ft portable camera designed by J. M. Schaeberle. The images displayed here foreground three themes suggested by the archive: understanding the sun, onsite labour, and the importance of framing.

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In the book, Trouvelot writes, "Those unacquainted with the use of optical instruments generally suppose that all astronomical drawings are obtained by the photographic process, and are, therefore, comparatively easy to procure; but this is not true. Although photography renders valuable assistance to the astronomer in the case of the Sun and Moon, as proved by the fine photographs of these objects taken by M. Janssen and Mr. Rutherfurd ; yet, for other subjects, its products are in general so blurred and indistinct that no details of any great value can be secured. A well-trained eye alone is capable of seizing the delicate details of structure and of configuration of the heavenly bodies, which are liable to be affected, and even rendered invisible, by the slightest changes in our atmosphere."
Transcription: "The exposure necessary to bring out the structure of faint nebulae are very long, often of three and four hours duration and for some special objects, ten or twelve hours. These long exposures are attended with difficulties, many of which would disappear if the necessary light action could be secured in one or two hours...the negatives secured with shorter exposure would be of greater excellence and would show structure that is now lost to thinning due to difficulties of guiding [the telescope] during very long exposures."
This is a four-hour exposure of the Great Spiral Nebula using the 36" Crossley reflector. Note the loss of detail described by Perrine or "faint nebulosity" described in the letters here; compare with the image of the spiral galaxy from 1914. N.B.: This is now known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. Astronomers did not yet understand the difference between nebulae and galaxies, believing that they were of the same nature. Most thought that all of these distant structures were contained within the Milky Way galaxy itself. The difference was confirmed in the 1920s; the work of one of the Lick's astronomers, Heber Curtis, contributed in part to this development.
Three-hour exposure. Reflecting on this photograph in a publication titled "On the Photographs of the Milky Way at the Lick Observatory in 1889," Barnard writes, "This remarkable picture shows the cloud-like forms like waves of spray. A curving lane of darkness runs from the lower left-hand portion of the picture and curves gracefully upwards to the place of Jupiter. It is singularly like the stem of a great leaf. At the middle of the picture it is seen to pass behind some of the clouds of stars and emerge beyond, showing us clearly which part of the Milky Way at that point is nearest to us... "