Ages of Astrophotography

In 1839, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Niepce’s one time partner announced to the world his Daguerreotype process and in the same year failed in his attempts to photograph the Moon with it. The following year, a New York University, Professor of Chemistry, John William Draper succeeded and Astrophotography was born.


The ‘Ages of Astrophotography’ through its ‘A’ List of 100 ‘objects’ tells of the events and people that have shaped the evolution of astronomical photography from its first tentative beginnings in the 1840s to the time of the digital camera and the space telescope.


It will feature the work of many of today’s greatest Astrophotographers, whose images have been seen by millions in countless newspapers, magazines, books, posters, journals, blogs, websites and TV programmes across the globe. These 28 imagers given below represent a ‘Hall of Fame’ of some of the finest astronomical photographers alive today:


Theodore Arampatzoglou from Greece;

Jean Pierre Brahic from France;

Dr. Miloslav Druckmuller from the Czech Republic;

Jim Ferreira from the USA;

Bernd Flach-Wilken from Germany;

R. Jay GaBany from the USA;

Dr. Robert Gendler from the USA;

Paul Haese from Australia;

Gordon Haynes from England;

Jason Jennings from Australia;

Dr. Walter Koprolin from Austria;

Thierry Legault from France;

Dr. David Malin from Australia;

Paul Martin from Northern Ireland;

Martin McKenna from Northern Ireland;

Jim Misti from the USA;

Tor-Ivar Naess from Norway;

Damian Peach from England;

Professor Pedro Re from Portugal;

Gerald Rhemann from Austria;

Eddie Trimarchi from Australia;

Daniel Verschatse from Chile;

Christian Viladrich from France;

Richard Walker from Switzerland;

Peter Ward from Australia;

Volker Wendel from Germany;

Anthony Wesley from Australia;

Hunter Wilson from the USA.


In addition leading manufacturers who have made the modern age of Astrophotography possible are represented - by the Santa Barbara Imaging Group of California, the first manufacturer of astronomical cameras for the modern amateur; and Diffraction Limited of Ontario, Canada, the developer of Maxim DL, the astronomical image acquisition and processing software of ‘choice’.


Their digital technology is used by all of the featured imagers and without them none of the modern images featured in the book could ever have been taken.


This book is dedicated to work of the pioneers of the first age of astronomical photography, many of whose names have long been forgotten; and also to the modern day imagers who have continued through their efforts to keep alive the memory of these early pioneers, and in doing so have created a new ‘Age of Astrophotography’.