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

Glass plate positive of Halley's comet, photographer unknown, 1910.

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1. "Astronomical Photography and Some of Its Merits," Charles Perrine, circa 1890s. 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."
2. Edward Barnard observing the night sky at the 6" Willard lens, 1894 "On chilly or cold nights I wore an Esquimaux coat made of reindeer skin, and heavy rubber overshoes. Frequently, on bringing the eye to the telescope on such nights, a spark would discharge with a slight shock between the eye and the eyepiece. This was extremely annoying, and finally became so disagreeable that it was found convenient frequently to touch the metal of the instrument...the probable explanation of this phenomenon is that it is due to the fur coat and the insulation of the rubber overshoes, the body becoming electrically charged like a Leyden jar." - Barnard in "Photographs of the Milky Way and Comets," 1913
4. Edward Barnard's first photograph of the Milky Way, 1889. 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... "
6. Andromeda Nebula, photographed by Edward Barnard, 1894.
7. 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 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.