5 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
I'd love to see something that shows the astonishing improvement in telescopes over time. Something like a series of images of a popular target (Andromeda?) from the earliest images to the best of today.
I've spent the occasional loose evening looking, and though I'm usually pretty good at digging up the stuff I want, I'm having no luck with this.
Comment by vvtz0 at 27/04/2023 at 11:12 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You may want to check the Wikipedia article on Orion Nebula. It has the very first photograph of the nebula taken in 1880 and then a much improved long-exposure shot of it taken in 1883 - which was the first that demonstrated that there are fascinating things invisible to the naked eye but possible to reveal with long-exposure photography.
And on the same page the article's title image is a mind-blowing composite picture of the nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Also, you may try searching for Edwin Hubble's original photos of the Andromeda Galaxy. And then look for the composite giga-panorama which captures only a part of the Andromeda Galaxy and has billions of individual stars visible in it.