First picture of the Moon
Photographer: John William Draper
Date: March 23, 1840
Location: NYU rooftop, New York City, USA
John William Draper, a physician and chemist at New York University, took this daguerreotype of the Moon on March 23, 1840, through a 13-inch (33 cm) reflecting telescope, making it the first known photograph of an astronomical object. The exposure lasted approximately 20 minutes. Draper was a pioneer of photography and spectroscopy; he also made what is considered the first successful photographic portrait of a human face (his sister Dorothy Catherine Draper) around the same period. His lunar daguerreotype opened the field of astronomical photography, which would eventually allow scientists to study celestial objects far beyond what was possible with the naked eye.
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