An Artful Observation of the Cosmos
The Moon and the Telescope
Galileo’s Starry Messenger (1610) set off the 17th-century race for the Moon – not a race to for flight, but a race to map its surface. To stare directly at the Full Moon is blinding at night; surface detail is entirely washed out, thus, to map the Moon, one must examine the “shadow line” night by night as it passes across the face of the Moon. Light moves back and forth, first one way and then the other, casting shadows in both directions at opposite phases. The lunar map gradually emerges as a composite representation of many individual topographical studies.
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Map of the Moon Hevelius, Johann (1647) Accurate depiction of the topography of the Moon was accomplished by mid-century in this lunar atlas by Hevelius. It set a new standard for precision that remained unmatched for a century. |
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New Celestial and Terrestrial Observations Fontana, Francesco (1646) Inspired by Galileo, Fontana constructed his own telescope, improving the optics. Around 1629 he began a series of detailed sketches of the face of the Moon. A series of 28 copperplate engravings reveal the Moon’s surface as perceived on different dates, as well as a fold-out lunar map. |
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New Philosophy, about our World beneath the Moon Gilbert, William (1651) Gilbert, physician to Queen Elisabeth I, attempted to map the world of the Moon with the unaided eye, even before the telescope of Galileo. In antiquity, Plutarch had surmised the existence of land and ocean regions in the dark and light patches of the lunar surface. |
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The Moon Nasmyth, James (1876) Nasmyth, a Scottish engineer known for his invention of the steam hammer, combined an avid interest in astronomy and photography. Carpenter was an astronomer at the Greenwich Observatory. Together they constructed plaster models of the lunar surface. |
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The Optics of the Eye Chérubin d’ Orléans, (1671) In this illustration, Chérubin d’Orléans adopted the lunar map of Hevelius. The putti are observing the Moon with telescopes equipped with the “pantograph,” a perspectival tool devised by d’Orléans. |
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