I’m going to the annual conference of the British Society for the History of Science in Leicester 2-5 July (was a bit lucky with the dates for the conference, since I have a ticket to see Depeche Mode in Copenhagen on June 30). I look forward to going to the conference and also seeing Leicester, have never been there before.
Abstract for my paper:
The Lund Observatory Milky Way panorama and all-sky images in the history of modern astronomy
All-sky pictures have often entailed manipulated image technologies rather than mechanical objectivity, and have been used both in astronomical science and in popular astronomy. In this paper, several 20th century astronomical practices of representing the whole sky are discussed, particularly the Lund observatory panorama of the Milky Way (1955). Produced by an artist working for two years under the direction of professor Knut Lundmark, it was a mixture of astronomical photography, photometric measurements and artistic creativity; Lundmark simultaneously aimed for scientific correctness and aesthetic value. Produced just at the dawn of the space age with a growing interest in astronomy in publishing and the media, the image became widely used in popular astronomy, academic textbooks, television programmes, museum exhibits &c. Based on archival material at the Lund observatory, it is possible to follow the media history of this picture through several decades and discuss the role of images in post-war astronomical culture.
