Join us in the Planetarium for a public talk titled “As Near an Approach as Possible”: Encountering the Moon’s Surface in Early Photographs, presented by Dr. Andrew Hershberger, Professor, BGSU School of ArtSeveral years ago Dr. Hershberger was fortunate to spend an entire semester researching in an exceedingly rare book library. This particular library held thousands of books from the 1840s to the early 1900s, and all of these books had original photographs glued into the pages of each volume.During the decades after photography’s invention in 1839, but before halftone reproduction technology became widespread around 1900, if an author wanted photographs in a book, original photographic prints had to be literally “tipped in” or glued into the pages of the book. Thus, photographically illustrated books from the decades between 1840 and 1900 are highly prized today, not only by rare book collectors, but also by photography collectors, print collectors, and by art museums.The presentation will focus on an absolutely unforgettable encounter and a very surprising experience with a particularly magical book found in the library. This book was written by James Nasmyth (1808-1890) and James Carpenter (1840-1899), and Carpenter had worked at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The book, The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite, was published in London in 1874. This book has 23 illustrations inside it of various kinds, and about half of them are original Woodburytype prints created from Nasmyth and Carpenter’s original photographic negatives.To Hershberger, someone who studies the art side of the history of photography, Nasmyth and Carpenter’s Woodburytype photographs of the Moon were stunningly beautiful. In their book’s preface, the co-authors stressed that they created their photographs “in order to present these Illustrations with as near an approach as possible to the absolute integrity of the original objects.” They stated how the photographic images “faithfully reproduce the lunar effects of light and shadow” and “the details of the lunar surface” (p. ix).This program is one of six sessions hosted by the BGSU Planetarium on a wide range of interdisciplinary topics, each with a connection to astronomy. Programs in the series will be every Thursday evening starting March 13 and running through April 17. “The Moon Speakers Series” events are free and open to the public.This talk will also be available to livestream via zoom at https://bgsu-edu.zoom.us/j/4287586258