Edward Emerson Barnard
Edward Emerson Barnard: Photogrpaphic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way
Edward Emerson Barnard (1857-1923) was one of the greatest astronomers of the 19th century. His last legacy was the Photographic Atlas of Selected regions of the Milky Way edited by Edwin B. Frost (1866-1935)1 and Mary R. Calvert (1884-1974)2 in 1927 after his death.
Only 700 copies of this Atlas were printed making the original edition a collector's item. Each one the 35700 plates of the Atlas was inspected by Barnard himself. Hundreds or even thousands of plates were rejected until Barnard was satisfied with the results. In the beginning of the twentieth century astronomical photographs were extremely difficult to reproduce satisfactorily.
Barnard’s Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way in composed of two volumes. Part I “Photographs and Descriptions” and Part II “Charts and Tables”. Volume I contain 52 original prints produced from Barnard's original negatives, and 31 pages of Barnard's description of each plate.
All Milky Way photographs were obtained with the 10" and 6.25" Bruce photographic refractors at Yerkes observatory or at Mt. Wilson observatory. The plates are glued to linen paper and have the appearance of original photographic prints. Volume 2 contains 51 charts showing objects of interest on the plates and the coordinates of the objects on the page facing the chart.
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