Astronomical Photographs by David Malin,
Anglo-Australian Observatory
Why These Photographs?
Most of the David Malin images presented here are of distant objects too faint to be seen by eye, even with a large telescope. The rich colors and unusual forms have been captured photographically, using sophisticated techniques and the finest wide-field optical telescopes.
In these pictures we link the familiar Earth, spinning endlessly beneath the stars, to the stars themselves and to distant galaxies of stars far beyond. This link between our planet and the stars is romantic, spiritual, provocative and uplifting; it is also real. The Earth beneath our feet, the oceans that divide the land and the very air we breathe are made of elements that were created inside the stars. These elements were not present when the Universe began; life would not have been possible without many previous generations of stars, ancestors of the sun.
We are made of star stuff, created inside stars that have long since vanished in spectacular explosions. Within galaxies, the hydrogen and helium of early Universe is gradually enriched with heavy elements from the disintegrating stars. It is from that mix that the sun and its collection of planets formed. The same 'stuff' colors these pictures and it is from star-stuff that we ourselves are made. As we explore these photographs we see echoes of our origins and premonitions of our destiny. That is the theme that links these images by David Malin.
Though the science of astronomy is implicit in every image, we have selected this series of David Malin's photographs for their visual impact, not their scientific content. However, the science is still there, and the images tell the story of the discovery and exploration of our galaxy, the Milky Way and the birth and death of the stars that sustain it. Though we hope we have selected beautiful photographs, we would like to emphasize that these are, fundamentally, scientific images that record the natural world in the colors of nature; here we see it as it is, not as it might be imagined. |
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