Photography

Photograph courtesy of Tony Misch

Before photography, the only way an astronomer could record an object seen through a telescope was by drawing it. Photography eliminated hours of painstaking sketching and produced more accurate and detailed images. An astronomer could focus the light from a celestial object onto a photographic plate and leave the plate exposed for minutes or hours. The longer the plate remained exposed, the more light it collected. Increasingly longer exposures revealed greater detail.