The Hidden Aesthetics of Early Astrophotography

In the 1880s, dry plate photographs of the Pleiades star cluster revealed a previously undiscovered nebula. It was an important moment for astronomers, who were hopeful that this photography would usher in a new type of mechanized observation. And while it was transformative, historian Alex Soojung-Kim Pang finds that early astrophotography did not always live up to astronomers’ hopes.

Astronomers like John Flamsteed (1646-1719) had long been using technology to remove human judgement from their practice.