TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER – PUBLIC TALK AT ROOM 701 WEST BY JOHN DRUMMOND

[Carol McAlavey]

‘E.E. Barnard, a 19th Century astrophotographer whose photos still ‘wow’ us.’

Edward Emmerson Barnard was a 19th/20th Century American astronomer and astrophotographer whose photos of the Milky Way revolutionised the way we understand our Galaxy. He began his photographic survey of dark regions in the Milky Way only two decades after the first deep sky astrophotos were taken. Barnard carefully studied his photos and identified over 370 regions that now bear his name – the ‘B’ objects, such as B33 for the Horsehead Nebula. Barnard’s journey of understanding (and journal publication regarding) these dark regions is fascinating. Initially astronomers thought that they were holes in the galaxy through which we could peer into intergalactic space, however, in time, Barnard realised that they were similar to bright nebulae – but not illuminated and thus dark. In this talk, the author will show comparison photos of selected regions of the Milky Way that Barnard took ~110 years ago and that the author took this year.

[Author]

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