The practice of using cameras and telescopes to photograph stars, galaxies, nebulae, and other objects in space.
Compound of astro- (star) and photography (from Greek photos 'light' and graphia 'writing'). The field developed in the 1840s when early astronomers realized they could record celestial observations more accurately with cameras than drawings.
Some of the most important scientific discoveries in history came from old photographic plates sitting in observatory archives for decades—astronomers would later analyze them and find supernovas, variable stars, and asteroids their predecessors had inadvertently captured.
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