It was an amateur astronomer who thought about inventions that had a huge impact on astrophotography

ByLuca Argalia

Even people who are not interested in astronomy have heard their nameGalileo GalileiI discovered the crater of the moon and satellites of Jupiter using the telescope I created by himself, and it was not believed back thenGiant motion theorySince he was advocated for "astronomy's father", he made a great contribution to astronomy. It is an astrographic photograph that photographs a beautiful celestial body that is indispensable in talking about the astronomy and reveals a detailed figure of a celestial body that can not be seen with the naked eye. In fact it is not well known that the person who invented the essential technology in contemporary astrophotography photography was an amateur astronomer, not a professional.

The Greatest "Amateur" Astronomer of All Time - Starts With A Bang! - Medium
https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/87937d92369b

After learning about the telescope invention patent in the Netherlands in 1608, Galileo created a telescope with a magnification of 20 times. From this time, it became possible for anyone to see the stars that could not be confirmed with the naked human eye through the telescope. With the passage of time, the telescope also evolves, the size increases, the light collection power also rises, and the structure of the universe gradually becomes clear.


For example, it was believed to have a spherical core shining in the centerGlobular clustersIn fact, it is hundreds of thousandsA starIt was a celestial body that gathered in a spherical shape with each other's gravity without knowing without the evolution of the telescope. However, as there were not yet pictures at that time, astronomers had handwritten sketches of what they saw with their own eyes while looking at the telescope, writing the positions of stars and nebulae, the brightness of stars, etc. .

At the end of 1840, the Irish astronomerWilliam ParsonsConstructed an astronomical telescope with a caliber 72 inches (about 1.8 meters). The Parsons astronomical telescope was the largest in the world at that time, and the detailed structure of a celestial body which had not been confirmed before, such as a nebula having a spiral structure, became clear.


The image below is sketched by Parsons,RomanceSpiral galaxy in "Children's galaxy"is. Even if the quality of the telescope goes up, there was no way but to write information from the telescope by hand.


However, as a result of the appearance of photographs in the early 19th century, astronomers reached a big change as astronomers who think that photography technology can be used for astronomy appears. However, in order to photograph celestial bodies, it is necessary to overcome problems such as "the celestial moves due to the rotation of the earth", "stabilizing heavy cameras" and "precisely directing the lens to the target" It is said that the material had limitations in expression too.

In the technology at that time there was a problem with astrophotography, but due to the evolution of the telescope and camera the first time in the world during the total solar eclipse in 1851Corona of the sunWill be taken. In the following decades, technology of astrophotography has developed and succeeded not only in photographing stars but also in photographing nebulae. However, it is not well known that there was one amateur astronomer, not a professional, in the shadow that the development of astrophotography photographs developed at tremendous momentum.


He was a businessman and a technicianIsaac RobertsI am interested in celestial photography and in the 1880 's I will purchase a 50 cm reflecting telescope that was the largest in the UK at that time. Roberts carried out various experiments using the purchased telescope. While trying a lot of technologies, he seems to have been researching for improving the telescope.

With repeated experiments, Roberts removed the problem of "difficult to concentrate" brought about by the second mirror in the mirror set up in the telescope inside the telescope and set the photosensitive plate at the main focus of the optical device to I will be the first person in the world who took astronomical photographs with the used telescope. However, there are other achievements that Roberts brought to celestial photography elsewhere, and that technology is still being usedPiggybackIt is what is called.


In order to accurately photograph celestial bodies, it is essential to photograph with long exposure. However, since the celestial bodies rotate due to the rotation of the Earth, if they are exposed for a long time, the trace of the movement of the stars will remain in the pictures. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to track the rotation of the celestial body. It was made possible by Roberts inventedPiggybackThat is the technology.

Until then, the exposure time of about 1 minute was the limit, but the invention of piggyback expands the exposure time to 1 hour, Roberts is shooting astrophotography photographs containing so much information as not to be compared with the past I will succeed. Roberts succeeded in shooting the world for the first time in the worldAndromeda galaxy. I did not know that the Andromeda galaxy had a spiral structure until Roberts succeeded in shooting.


This is the Andromeda galaxy taken with a modern camera. Although there is a difference in image quality, the overwhelming difference in shape with Roberts' photographed pictures can not be seen.


Great inventions are not created by great scientists and engineers, but also by amateur engineers like Roberts. For example, it is what an amateur scholar made a field called meteorology, naming a substance called cloudLuke HowardPeople. Even those who usually casually touch, if you look at that roots, you will find unexpected facts and interesting stories.