Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Starry Night

Most of us know Van Gogh's famous photo, starry night..
,











but the picture resembles a previous sketch made by astronomer William Parsons the third Earl of Rosse.


Lord Rosse carried out pioneering astronomical studies In the 1840s, he built his "Leviathan of Parsonstown" 72-inch (183-cm) telescope at Birr, Ireland ...and discovered the spiral nature of some nebulas, today known to be spiral galaxies. The first spiral galaxy he detected was M51, and his drawings of it closely resemble modern photographs (today it is known as the Whirlpool Galaxy).


The Hubble photo is HERE.

Don McLean's song is HERE.

No comments: