Art and Astronomy in the Victorian Era: 19th century French entymologist-turned-astronomer, E.L. Trouvelot (1827-1895), spent 15 years making >6000 original drawings of his celestial observations at the Harvard Observatory. Some were converted into chromolithographs, a printing process that was perfected in the 1880’s, in which each color was separately transferred using lithographic stones obtained from Germany.
These stunning images have now been digitally preserved by the NY Public Library: http://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/sibl/trouvelot/homep.html
Interesting side note: Trouvelot was responsible for introducing the gypsy moth to eastern North America where it is now the most destructive and invasive pest of hardwood trees.
H/T to the Huffington Post’s new Science section for featuring this work.
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 
Oh WOW, thank you for this precious treasure Rajini.
That. is. beautiful!
Totally fantastic!
Good astronomy pics
My favorite is Jupiter! 🙂
Very beautiful. I want some hanging on my wall! I think I like the comet the best. I wonder if any are still around and being sold by some antique dealer somewhere… Thanks for sharing!
BTW, where do you find your content? You consistently have really interesting posts. Just topics you’re interested in and do a little research on?
Excellent pics and wonderful topic….its all God gifted….you r great…..
Thanks for this Rajini – those solar irradiations come out very neatly on this chronograph or photogram. An excellent shot and one which could help us this year in solar research for 2012’s carrington effect. Rsj
very nice
I am officially in love right now. I always thought the cosmos itself was beautiful, but these… Thank you, thank you so much!
Przemysław Zańko , thank you for letting me know that you enjoyed these as much as I did! Alan LaMielle , the comet is my favorite too. I think we appreciate the same things..I find interesting things as I read news online or just go about my day. I do like to go to the original source, which of course leads me on more fascinating stuff 🙂 There never is enough time for all of it!
Rajini Rao yeah, it does seem like we like similar things. ; ) Keep posting!