'Catchers of the Light' is now featured on Google Books, please read the ultimate History of Astrophotography.
"It is rare to find a magnum opus in astronomy that is so detailed, so interesting, and so expert over a wide range that it is hard to carry across the magnificence of this work...I highly recommend this .. to all with an interest either in the history of astronomy or in the history of photography." Jay M. Pasachoff, Memorial Professor of Astronomy, Williams College; from April 2013 Newsletter of the Historical Astronomy Division, American Astronomical Society. See HAD News for full review.
PRINTED BOOK EDITION OF THE 'CATCHERS OF THE LIGHT' COMING SOON!
Every day our eyes catch the light of our memories – time spent with family, the journey to work, a special holiday, a beautiful sunset or a dark starlit night. Each image captured is a picture drawn in light – a photograph: only to be lost in our minds or forever forgotten. Nearly two hundred years ago a small group of amateur scientists achieved what had eluded mankind for centuries – the ability to capture a permanent record of an image seen by their own eyes – a moment in time frozen onto a surface. They had discovered Photography. They were the ‘Catchers of the Light’.
- Tales of Adventure, Adversity & Triumph
- Featuring the Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens.
- A History of Astrophotography, complete with over 1550 pages, more than 1800 photographs/illustrations, in excess of 2000 references/notes, containing also 46 in-depth pioneer biographies in 9 Parts with 8 Appendices.
 
Readers of Sky & Telescope have been learning about and buying the 'Catchers of the Light' after it was featured in the magazine's new product showcase:
"ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY HISTORY: Author Stefan Hughes has self-published Catchers of the Light: A History of Astrophotography ($79.99). This compendium chronicles the lives and contributions of the pioneers of astronomical photography, with an emphasis on the early pioneers of the 19th century. Each chapter is devoted to a particular astrophotographer, such as Henry Draper and John Adams Whipple, and includes little-known background information on the subjects relating to their lives. The book discusses the first astronomical photographs of the Moon and the development of spectroscopy all the way up to the growing role of the amateur astrophotographer in the modern digital age."
One of the world's greatest treasure houses - New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, has purchased the 'Catchers of the Light' for its Library, thus confirming this eBook's status as an invaluable source of reference on the History of Astronomical Photography; and indeed astronomy, astrophysics, history of science and photography in general. |
|
VI - Astronomical Spectroscopy
 Solar Spectrum, John W. Draper, 1842; Spectra of Bright Stars, Harvard Observatory
"One important object of this original spectroscopic investigation of the light of the stars and other celestial bodies, namely to discover whether the same chemical elements as those of our earth are present throughout the universe, was most satisfactorily settled in the affirmative; a common chemistry, it was shown, exists throughout the universe."
Sir William Huggins (1824-1910)
|
|
Dr. Stefan Hughes began his career as a professional astronomer, gaining a 1st Class Honours degree in Astronomy from the University of Leicester in 1974 and his PhD four years later on the 'Resonance Orbits of Artificial Satellites due to Lunisolar Perturbations', which was published as a series of papers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. After graduating he became a Research fellow in Astronomy, followed by a spell as a lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Queen Mary College, London. Then came a ten year long career as an IT Consultant. In 'mid life' he spent several years retraining as a Genealogist, Record Agent and Architectural Historian, which he practiced for a number of years before moving to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where for the past ten years he has been imaging the heavens, as well as researching and writing the 'Catchers of the Light' - A History of Astrophotography.
