Katharina Bick

PhD project

The Use of Photography in Astronomical Expeditions by German Institutions, 1871–1918

The gradual introduction of photography into astronomy led to a fundamental change in working practices at observatories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The DFG-funded project ‘The Glass Archive of Astronomy: Photographic Practices at the Observatory, 1850–1950’, funded by the DFG, examines this development. However, astronomical photography was not only practised at observatories, but also outside them, namely by astronomers undertaking expeditions. As part of the DFG project, my doctoral research examines the photographic practices of German astronomers during expeditions to observe total solar eclipses or transits of Venus.¹

My focus is on the practices and materials involved in astronomical glass-plate photography under field conditions: how were the photographic materials produced, or selected and purchased by the expedition staff? How did astronomers determine the technical details of the photographic process? How did they create the right conditions in their makeshift camps to achieve satisfactory results in their photographic work? How did they transport the necessary equipment to their destinations and set up their camps? Exactly which photographic processes did they use, and how were the exposure and development of the plates organised? What happened after the expeditions returned, when the plates were measured and analysed?

In my project, I analyse astrophotographic expeditions carried out by German institutions during the German Empire (1871 to 1918). These include solar eclipse expeditions organised by the observatories in Hamburg, Göttingen and Potsdam, as well as the centrally organised expeditions to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. The sources consist of published reports, archival materials from, amongst others, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Secret State Archive of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the Hamburg-Bergedorf Observatory, the Hamburg State Archive and the Federal Archives, as well as, in some cases, surviving photographic plates.

In addition to reconstructing the technical aspects of astrophotographic work, this study will highlight the links between astronomy and colonialism/imperialism: resources and infrastructure associated with the colonialism/imperialism of various European nations were a prerequisite for the day-to-day work of the expeditions. In my project, I also seek to describe the distribution of agency between the astronomers, who sought to harness the technology of photography to their own ends, and the photographic material, which imposed certain demands. Furthermore, I will demonstrate that photographic work in astronomy did not end with the development of the images: the plates were measured, the data obtained was mathematically analysed, and the results were presented in the form of tables, diagrams, graphs or written descriptions, whilst reproductions of the photographic images play a remarkably minor role in the publications.

Footnote:

1 Solar eclipses have a narrow band of totality from which the outer parts of the Sun’s atmosphere become visible. A transit of Venus occurs when Venus overtakes the Earth in its orbit and passes between the Earth and the Sun, appearing as a small black dot in front of the Sun. Observations made from different locations can be combined to determine the distance between the Sun and the Earth.

See also the DFG project

Since January 2021

PhD student on the DFG project ‘Astronomy’s Glass Archive: Photographic Practices at the Observatory, 1850–1950’.

2019–2020

Personal assistant to people with disabilities, Centre for Independent Living e.V., Erlangen.

2018–2019

MPhil in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK, with research projects in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Funded by the German National Academic Foundation.

2015–2018

BA in Classics with a specialisation in the History of Philosophy, University of Regensburg.

2012–2015

B.Sc. in Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, including a semester abroad at the University of York, United Kingdom, 2014–2015. Funded by the Bavarian Max Weber Programme and the German National Academic Foundation.

Bick, Katharina/ Bendl, Torsten (2025): “Research project: Astrophotography using glass photographic plates between 1850 and 1950”. In: Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte 57, p. 3.

Bick, Katharina (2020). “Astronomical References in the Farmers’ Calendars of Roman
agricultural writers”. In: Ancient Science and its Reception 30, pp. 65–85.