Overview

Today we are all familiar with the iconic pictures of the nebulae produced by the Hubble Space Telescope’s digital cameras. But there was a time, before the successful application of photography to the heavens, in which scientists had to rely on handmade drawings of these mysterious phenomena.           Observing by Hand sheds entirely new light on the ways in which the production and reception of handdrawn images of the nebulae in the nineteenth century contributed to astronomical observation. Omar W. Nasim investigates hundreds of unpublished observing books and paper records from six nineteenth-century observers of the nebulae: Sir John Herschel; William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse; William Lassell; Ebenezer Porter Mason; Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel; and George Phillips Bond. Nasim focuses on the ways in which these observers created and employed their drawings in data-driven procedures, from their choices of artistic materials and techniques to their practices and scientific observation. He examines the ways in which the act of drawing complemented the acts of seeing and knowing, as well as the ways that making pictures was connected to the production of scientific knowledge.           An impeccably researched, carefully crafted, and beautifully illustrated piece of historical work, Observing by Hand will delight historians of science, art, and the book, as well as astronomers and philosophers.

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9780226084374

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Reviews

Observing the position of stars is one thing, observing extended and faint nebulae in a time before photography is quite another. How did researchers pin down their observations, how did they communicate them? In his brilliant analysis of astronomical practice, Omar W. Nasim shows how nineteenth-century observers coped with such challenges. He provides an intriguing case study of how closely observing and communicating are intertwined. --Friedrich Steinle, Technische Universit t Berlin

In Omar W. Nasim's new book, a series of fascinating characters sketch, paint, and etch their way toward a mapping of the cosmos and the human mind. . . . Nasim's approach blends the history and philosophy of science in a study that informs the histories of astronomy, images, and paperwork, and that emphasizes the importance of the philosophy of mind and its history in shaping this heavenly narrative. His transdisciplinary approach spans several media that include maps and portraits, oil paintings and etchings, private drawings and collectively produced published images. The book helped me see Van Gogh's The Starry Night , and the starry night above, with new eyes and a new appreciation for the vision and visioning of nineteenth century astronomical observers. --Carla Nappi New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

Author Information

Omar W. Nasim is a senior research fellow at the Chair for Science Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, a member of the Iconic Criticism project at the University of Basel, and the author of Bertrand Russell and the Edwardian Philosophers.

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