Photographs of Stars, Star-Clusters and Nebulae
Photographs of Stars, Star-Clusters and Nebulae
A geologist and fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, Isaac Roberts (1829–1904) made significant contributions to the photography of star-clusters and nebulae. By championing reflecting rather than refracting telescopes, Roberts was able to perceive previously unnoticed star-clusters, and was the first to identify the spiral shape of the Great Andromeda Nebula. Roberts' use of a telescope for photographing stars, and a long exposure time, provided greater definition of stellar phenomena than previously used hand-drawings. Although Roberts' conclusions about the nature of the nebulae he photographed were not always correct, the book is significant for the possibilities it suggests for nebular photography. Published in London in 1893 and 1899, the two-volume Photographs of Stars represents the summation of his work with his assistant W. S. Franks at his observatory in Crowborough, Sussex. Volume 1 contains 51 collotype plates of stars, and descriptions of his instruments and methods.
Product details
No date availablePaperback
9781108015226
168 pages
297 × 210 × 9 mm
0.42kg
53 b/w illus.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Isaac Roberts' observatory, Crowborough Hill
- Isaac Roberts' telescopes
- List of the plates
- List of the abbreviations
- 1. The negatives
- 2. Arrangement of the photographs
- 3. Epoch of the Fiducial stars (A.D. 1900)
- 4. A table for converting measurements in right ascensions into intervals of time
- 5. Illustrations of the method for determining the right ascensions and declinations of the stars
- 6. Introduction
- Utility of the photographic charts
- 7. Refractors and reflectors as photo-instruments
- 8. Requirements and adjustments of a reflector for celestial photography
- 9. Collimation of the mirror
- 10. Essentials of a photo-telescope
- 11. Method for testing the stability of a photo-instrument
- 12. Photographic plates: their exposures and development
- 13. Description of the photographs and references concerning them
- 14. Deductions from the photographs.
