Cooke Telescope Tales - astronomy photographs taken in 1853

Some of the early astronomical photographs were taken in England by astronomers using Thomas Cooke & Sons telescopes.

 In 1853 John Phillips in the Museum Gardens in York using a 6.25 inch telescope photographed the Moon. In 1857 Mr Fry using Mr Howell’s 6.5 inch telescope in Brighton were amongst the first astrophotographers. 

At this period of time telescopes were designed for visual use and all the gentlemen astronomers had the problem using refractors of the difference between the actinic and visual foci. Reflecting telescopes did not suffer from such problems. 

The negatives obtained by both Phillips and Fry were about 1 inch in diameter.

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