The History of Space Photography
This exhibition reveals the fantastic variety of outer-space photography from the early 1800s until today. On display are the most important images from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries: photographs of the earth from space, photographs of our solar system and the stars, the Milky Way, and the universe far beyond our solar system. In addition, three projected showings of photographs and videos are involved related to the three main divisions of the exhibition.
The oldest science
Since the beginning of human life we've stared up at the sky. Early civilizations such as that of ancient Greece studied the night sky with the unaided eye. This led to astronomy, the oldest science.
Photography - a revolution in astronomy
The invention of the telescope in the 1600s enabled astronomers such as Galileo to learn in more detail about the sky's fantastic objects. Astronomers who wanted to document what they saw had to produce detailed drawings by hand. With the discovery of photography in the 1830s, astronomers had a chemical process that could delineate the masses of heavenly bodies and events they saw. These images allowed photographers to study their own or other investigators' observations precisely and without time pressures. The pictures led to a revolution in astronomy.