Victorian scientists' drawings of nebulae explored in new book

Before the Hubble telescope, Victorian scientists used pencil and paper to record their observations of the stars. Their beautifully detailed drawings were the precursors of modern astronomy, and may even have inspired one of the most well-known works of Impressionist art, according to a new book. Observing By Hand , a new book by Oxford University historian Dr Omar W Nasim, relates how these scientists used the most mundane equipment - simple pencils and paper - to record distant space phenomena. The book focuses on drawings of nebulae, the interstellar clouds of dust and gas where new stars are born. 'In the 18th and 19th centuries, nebulae were a very new and enigmatic phenomenon,' said Dr Nasim, a Newton International Fellow at Oxford University's Faculty of History and The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities (TORCH). 'Scientists were used to observing round objects such as stars and planets, so the misty shapes of nebulae were astoundingly challenging. 'They made thousands of drawings to try and capture the shape and nature of these mysterious, ambiguous forms.