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

Great Spiral Nebula, photographed by the Earl of Rosse, 1899.

This is a four-hour exposure of the Great Spiral Nebula using the 36" Crossley reflector. 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.

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Great Spiral Nebula (M51), photographer unknown (likely James Keeler), 1899. This is a four-hour exposure of the Great Spiral Nebula using the 36" Crossley reflector. Note the "loss of nebulosity" or the lack of nebular glow described by Perrine, in comparison with the glass plate image of Orion from 1928. N.B.: 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.