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

The Lick Observatory: Imaging the Cosmos

blurb about objectivity 

This collection of documents asks us to think about how astronomical observation--then, as now--is filtered by the aesthetic ideals and biases of the observer. In the following paths, we can perhaps see how aesthetic affect, like wonder or awe (what art and literary theorists refer to as "the sublime" [link]), conditions even the most "objective" efforts at observation and representation.

Contents of this path: