The Mad Hatter Henry Draper



Hello world! What is up? I hope everyone is doing good! Alright, serious face time, this week we’re gonna learn a bit more about our old pal the Orion Nebula. Buckle up, sit down, and lets do some freaking learning! So the baby making mad man that is the Orion Nebula was actually the first Nebula to be photographed; now don’t be getting all excited now the first picture is in all honesty, butt ugly. Now I am not saying it wasn’t an important picture, nay nay, what I am simply saying is that the picture is well….hard to look at.
 [Photos of Orion Nebulae, taken in 1880 and 1883] (2018) Retrieved from: https://history.aip.org/exhibits/cosmology/tools/pic-spectroscopy-orion.htm
This picture was taken by this dude named Henry Draper way back in 1880 (I know real long time) (Gannon 2014). Our boy Draper here was not only one of the first people to think about pointing a camera at the sky; he was also a Doctor, a Chemist, a Botanist, and if being all that wasn’t enough for this guy he was also a Professor on top of all that (Britanica 2018). This dude may be just as crazy as the thing he took a picture of. Draper’s feat of taking a picture of the Orion Nebula is so crazy because to take pictures back then you had to sit with your camera pointed at what you wanted to snap for a long time. So yeah having a picture of the Orion Nebula taken back then is completely insane. It makes me wonder about Draper though, did he not have a life or was he just so determined to take that picture that he didn't stop until he had it? Who's to say; the guy is dead so it's not like I could pop by his house for some afternoon tea and ask the dude if he had a life. Back on topic Draper may have been a mad man for taking that picture but what he did for Astronomical Imaging was extremely important So let's have a round of applause for the mad man with too many hats, Henry Draper!


Works Cited
Burgett, Gannon. "Two Photos of the Orion Nebula Show Just How Far Photography Has Come." PetaPixel. March 07, 2014. Accessed September 17, 2018. https://petapixel.com/2014/03/06/two-photos-of-the-orion-nebula-show-just-how-far-photography-has-come/.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. February 28, 2018. Accessed September 17, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Draper.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Planet From Hell

Image
An Artists Rendition of the Planet Gliese 581c Retrieved from: http://www.cosmographica.com/spaceart/exoplanet-gliese581c.html Hello to the few people that read this! (How’s the day going Professor?). I hope you all are ready to have some knowledge thrown at you! So pull a chair up, take a seat, and lets get to learning! Now I know I talk a LOT about space but I never really talk about the planet we live on (Don’t get to excited; I see you perking up a bit back there Tom). Let’s not get too carried away here people; I’m not gonna talk about Earth, Nay Nay, I’m gonna talk about planets that are LIKE Earth (No Tom I’m not talking about Aliens! Sit down before you hurt yourself man). So our favorite people over at NASA have spent many years staring at the sky in hopes they will find a planet like our very own Earth. I bet some of you are getting a bit excited but keep your shirts on, NASA has not found any planets that are 100% like Earth. When I say “Like Earth” I mean how likely y
Read more

The Little Robot Who Could

Image
Hello my good people! Now I know some of y’all are here to listen to me ramble for a couple hundred words (and I love all my readers, that’s right Professor you’re the best!) and the rest of you are wondering how the heck you ended up here (Don’t worry Sam, it’s not like I can see you through your camera or anything… or can I…?). We’re gonna be doing something a bit different this week folks. This week I’m going to tell you about the amazing thing that just happened in recent space news (I like that, “Space News” it sounds very official for something I just made up!) Now that I’ve got your attention (Well most of you… PATRICIA! Gurl pay attention please. I am trying to expand your knowledge, you can text your BFF later. Trust me you might want to hear this….maybe not? Aaand we’ve lost Patricia. Dang! Welp the past in the past they always say!) Let me tell you what happened. So sit yourself down! Open your ears! It’s time to do you some learnin’! Ok backstory time! I’m sure some of you
Read more
~Hello everyone~ (or to whomever reads this). This is a blog that I have made for a class I am taking in College. So basically my Professor wanted all of us to each make a blog. So I have made this Astronomy blog and thought to myself "If I have to do this, why not have fun while doing it?" So welcome all who come to this random google blog, welcome to my own personal train wreck. But I will say this, I am not an expert at all when it comes to Astronomy so if I get anything wrong do not hesitate to correct me. Without further adieu, Welcome to Rando Badly Explains Astronomy !
Read more