The Amateur Astronomer as Image Producer
2024; Brill; Volume: 39; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1163/18253911-bja10087
ISSN1825-3911
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis
ResumoAbstract This article approaches the history of amateur astronomers in the late nineteenth century via visual and material sources. It adopts three separate viewpoints: Jules Pierrot Deseilligny’s home-based workshop, two self-portraits of amateurs at work, and a corpus of selenographic images published in the Bulletin de la Société Astronomique de France . These sources throw light on amateur savant practices, which are largely based on producing images, sometimes taking the form of a structured scholarly project, and giving rise to exchanges, debates, and sociabilities. It identifies a proliferation during the years 1880 to 1914, characterised by a particular sensitivity to the extraterrestrial life feeding a powerful desire to observe the surface of the moon.
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