Last year, I went to the Royal Astronomical Society (London) to research in their library. I had previously spoken to librarian Peter Hingley on the phone who was extremely helpful. When I arrived Peter showed me around the library and showed me an archive he had compiled himself of imagery, folders of meteorites and sunspots amongst others. In this archive I found  drawings by William Hershel, john Russell and Sir Roche. After spending the day searching through the image and library archives I chose a few images that I thought I could re-interpret, for example Herschel’s studies of the moon and Roches drawings of nebulae.

I spoke with peter on an off during the day and he mentioned that some astronomers still believe that drawing planets through the telescope is still the best form of observation.

Peter recommended a few societies that I could contact to ask if I could draw from their telescopes and I began contacting them to see if this would be possible. I received a number of helpful and enthusiastic replies and was invited to a number of astronomical society meetings, including an astronomers picnic on Hampstead heath to observe Mercury/Venus and Jupiter’s activity on the 1st of august.

I also contacted ULO(University of London Observatory) through UCL and emailed a few members of staff to see if it would be possible to draw from their equipment. Again I received a helpful reply and after some email exchanges, I received an invite to draw using one of the telescopes at ULO later in august. (As it was summer, I was advised I would be better off drawing sun-spots)