1800s Astronomical Drawings vs. Modern NASA Images

I love this post from the NYPL comparing astronomical drawings by E.L. Trouvelot done in the 1870s to contemporary NASA images.

Trouvelot was a French immigrant to the US in the 1800s, and his job was to create sketches of astronomical observations at Harvard College’s observatory. Building off of this sketch work, Trouvelot decided to do large pastel drawings of “the celestial phenomena as they appear…through the great modern telescopes.”

He made drawings of Saturn, Jupiter, aurora borealis, the Milky Way, and more. Here’s his incredible drawing of sun spots compared to a recent image of the Sun’s surface:

And his drawing of a solar eclipse compared to a recent image:

Check out the post for more examples of Trouvelot’s work.

• art
• astronomy
• E.L. Trouvelot
• NASA
• science
• space