PROGRESS OF ASTRONOMICAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 193 



Mr. Glaisher, writUig in 1851, as reporter upon philosophical in- 

 struments in the great exhibition, Class X, and upon Mr. Bond's 

 daguerreotype of the moon, taken in 1850, and which was placed in 

 the exhibition of 1851, says upon photography: "Let us now view 

 photography in its application to science : a process by which transient 

 actions are rendered permanent, and which enables nature to do her 

 own work — or, in other words, which causes facts permanently to re- 

 cord themselves — is too well fitted for the purpose of science to be 

 long overlooked; but the difficulties to be overcome in its application 

 have been and still are great, and the results proportionably few in 

 number. We consider, however, that the commencement of a sys- 

 tematic application of the photographic process to the purposes of 

 astronomy is indicated by the daguerreotype of the moon by Mr. 

 Whipple; and great, indeed, will be the benefit conferred upon 

 astronomical science when we obtain permanent representations 

 of the celestial bodies and their relative positions through the agency 

 of light." 



Enlarged copies of Mr. Bond's photographs were laid before the 

 Royal Astronomical Society in May of the same year. At the meet- 

 ing of the British Association of Science, held at Ipswich in July, 

 1851, under the presidency of the learned astronomer royal, a daguer- 

 reotype of the moon was shown to the members of the mathematical 

 section by Mr. Bond; and his royal highness the Prince Consort, 

 whose loss we now deeply deplore, was present on the occasion and 

 inspected the daguerreotype. 



On the subject of the connexion of photography and chemistry with 

 astronomy some interesting remarks appear in the admirable lecture 

 on the sun, delivered by the respected Professor Walker before the 

 British Association of Science, under the presidency of our esteemed 

 member Lord Wrottesley, in 1860, at Oxford. 



There are several references to celestial photography in the various 

 volumes of the Comtes Bendus^ which can only be brought to your 

 notice in the form of notes.* 



It was the sight of these very promising daguerreotypes of Mr. Bond 

 which, in 1851, first gave the impulse to Mr. De La Rue's labors in 

 this direction. In 1852 he availed himself of the collodion process 

 invented by Mr. Archer in the preceding year, and succeeded in ob- 

 taining a good picture of the moon. In 1853 Professor Phillips ob- 

 tained talbotypes of the moon at York. In 1854 lunar photographs 

 were secured at Liverpool under the supervision of our respected 



* 1849. —Vol. xxxviii, p. 241. " On the Observations of the Sun." By M. Faye. 



1858. — Vol. xlv, p. 705 and followinj; pages. "On the Photographs of the Eclipse of 

 March 15, by MM. Forro and Qiiinet."' By M. Faye. 



1859. — Vol. xlviii, p. 174. " Report on a Memoir addressed by M. Liais on the occa- 

 sion of the Total Eclipse of 1858, September 7." 



1859. — Vol. xlix. " Second Memoir on the coming Eclipse of 18 July." 



1860. — Vol li, p 965. "On the State of Astronomical Photoo;raphy in France." 



1861. — Vol. liii, p. 997. "On the Perfecting Meridional Observations of the Sun with- 

 out an Observer." By M. Faye. 



1862.— Vol. liv, pp. 43 to 159. "On Photographs of the Sun, taken by M. Belfort 

 during the Eclipse of the 31st of December last." 



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