Drawings and Paintings From The Archives

M51 Spiral Galaxy
Drawing by Lord Rosse using the 72 inch Birr Reflector in 1845
Taken from John F.W. Herschel (1858: "Outlines of Astronomy", Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts; London 1858).

The Orion Nebula, showing the Trapezium,
(possibly made with Lord Rosse's Reflector)
by W. H. Rambaut.
White on Black - Damaged.

Three Pen and Ink sketches of Lunar Craters,
by Evelyn M. Whitehead, 1911.
.1 Sinus, Pr La Place Iridum
.2 Fracastorius
.3 Proclus

Jupiter, in Lord Rosse's 6ft Reflector,
Feb. 1848, signed WHR.

From a very old Comet Book, in Latin:

Image from Stanislav Lubienietzki S (1667) "Theatrum Cometicum" Vol. II, in "Historia Cometarum" (1666), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Jochen Schramm (his site) has noted that this is an image of the bright 1665 comet seen over the Alster lake in the centre of Hamburg during April(?) 1665.

On its path through the heavens, this comet is about to be swallowed by a serpent!

The Constellation of Cygnus

An early astrological treatise.
by Firmicus Maternus

Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica"

The Title Page

Diagram showing the Diffraction of Light

Newton's "Opticks: or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of LIGHT"

The Title Page

From Dreyer's own copy of his
"New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars"

The Title Page