Historical Astrophotography--page 1 of 3
These astrophotos were taken with the Crossley 36"
Reflector at Lick Observatory by James
E. Keeler between 1899 and 1903. They were scanned at 200dpi from
"Publications of the Lick Observatory, Volume VIII". I decided
to scan them and make them available after an unsuccessful HET607 "History
of Astronomy" project on astrophotographs through time. I found it
nearly impossible to find appropriate materials for this project even though I
had access to the University of California, Davis library (the
66th largest in the US at about 3.5 million volumes). My only success
was after a trip to the University of California, Berkeley library (the
6th largest in the US at about 10.1 million volumes). There I found a
book of astrophotographs by Isaac
Roberts from 1888 to 1898. Unfortunately, these images were of little
use as their quality was low compared to the somewhat later images of
Keeler. These Roberts images can be found here.
You are welcome to use these images with proper attribution
(Images by James Keeler, thanks to Paul Feldstein for providing the scans, or
something to that effect).
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M1--the Crab Nebula
2 hour 0 minute exposure taken on December 24, 1899
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M3
1 hour 30 minute exposure taken on May 22, 1900
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M5
1 hour 30 minute exposure taken on May 24, 1900
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M8--the Lagoon Nebula
4 hour 0 minute exposure taken on July 7, 1899
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M12
2 hour 0 minute exposure taken on July 11, 1899
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M13
2 hour 0 minute exposure taken on June 22, 1900
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M17--the Omega or Swan Nebula
4 hour 0 minute exposure taken on July 9, 1899
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M20--the Trifid Nebula
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on July 6, 1899
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M27--the Dumbbell Nebula
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on July 31, 1899
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M31--the Andromeda Galaxy
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on September 7, 1899
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M33--the Triangulum Galaxy
3 hour 30 minute exposure taken on September 12, 1899
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M42--the Great Nebula in Orion (Central region)
0 hour 5 minute exposure taken on February 9, 1899
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M51--the Whirlpool Galaxy
4 hour 0 minute exposure taken on May 10, 1899
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M57--the Ring Nebula
4 hour 0 minute exposure taken on July 7, 1899
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M61
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on April 27, 1900
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M63--the Sunflower Galaxy
3 hour 30 minute exposure taken on July 5, 1902
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M64--the Blackeye Galaxy
2 hour 30 minute exposure taken on May 27, 1900
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M65
3 hour 30 minute exposure taken on April 20, 1900
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M66
3 hour 30 minute exposure taken on April 20, 1900
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M74
4 hour 0 minute exposure taken on October 31, 1899
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M76
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on September 11, 1899
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M77
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on December 3, 1899
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M78
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on November 26, 1902
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M81--Bode's Maelstrom
3 hour 55 minute exposure taken on March 21, 1900
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M88
3 hour 0 minute exposure taken on June 27-28, 1902
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