Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century

A discussion of Omar Nasim's book Dr Omar Nasim (lecturer in
history at the University of Kent) discusses his book with Dr
Stephen Johnston (Assistant Keeper, Museum of the History of
Science), Professor Martin Kemp (History of Art, University of
Oxford) and Professor Chris Lintott (Astrophysics, University of
Oxford). The book sheds entirely new light on the ways in which the
production and reception of handdrawn images of the nebulae in the
nineteenth century contributed to astronomical observation. Omar W.
Nasim investigates hundreds of unpublished observing books and
paper records from six nineteenth-century observers of the nebulae:
Sir John Herschel; William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse;
William Lassell; Ebenezer Porter Mason; Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht
Tempel; and George Phillips Bond. Nasim focuses on the ways in
which these observers created and employed their drawings in
data-driven procedures, from their choices of artistic materials
and techniques to their practices and scientific observation. He
examines the ways in which the act of drawing complemented the acts
of seeing and knowing, as well as the ways that making pictures was
connected to the production of scientific knowledge.