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Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century

Nasim, Omar W. (2013) Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century. University of Chicago, Chicago, 296 pp. ISBN 978-0-226-08437-4. E-ISBN 978-0-226-08437-4. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:48625)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
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Abstract

Today we are all familiar with the iconic pictures of the nebulae produced by the Hubble Space Telescope’s digital cameras. But there was a time, before the successful application of photography to the heavens, in which scientists had to rely on handmade drawings of these mysterious phenomena.

Observing by Hand sheds entirely new light on the ways in which the production and reception of handdrawn images of the nebulae in the nineteenth century contributed to astronomical observation. Omar W. Nasim investigates hundreds of unpublished observing books and paper records from six nineteenth-century observers of the nebulae: Sir John Herschel; William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse; William Lassell; Ebenezer Porter Mason; Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel; and George Phillips Bond. Nasim focuses on the ways in which these observers created and employed their drawings in data-driven procedures, from their choices of artistic materials and techniques to their practices and scientific observation. He examines the ways in which the act of drawing complemented the acts of seeing and knowing, as well as the ways that making pictures was connected to the production of scientific knowledge.

An impeccably researched, carefully crafted, and beautifully illustrated piece of historical work, Observing by Hand will delight historians of science, art, and the book, as well as astronomers and philosophers.

Item Type: Book
Subjects: D History General and Old World
Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User: Omar Nasim
Date Deposited: 25 May 2015 11:25 UTC
Last Modified: 28 Sep 2021 15:46 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/48625 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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