Photographie Lunaire: Copernic-Képler-Aristarique
Medium
photogravure (heliogravure)
Dimensions
sheet: 57 × 47.7 cm · framed: 88.6 × 77.3 × 2.6 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Amy and Neil Viny
Accession Number
2011.172
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
This plate is from a deluxe 12-volume atlas of the moon created by astronomers Maurice Loewy and Pierre Henri Puiseaux. The atlas remained the most accurate reference of the moon’s surface until the age of space travel. The duo captured thousands of images at the Paris Observatory through a telescope that Loewy invented. It was equipped with a mechanism that tracked the moon’s movements during the exposures. Given weather conditions, they were only able to photograph 50 to 60 nights per year; th...