THESE striking images of stars are a modern representation of work done in the 18th century by Caroline Herschel. Herschel, , discovered eight comets and 14 nebulae. She also revised the catalogue of stars by England鈥檚 first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, presenting the Royal Society in 1798 with a catalogue of 560 stars that had been omitted.
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In 2020, photographic artist Lynda Laird began a residency at the Royal Astronomical Society, reacting to Herschel鈥檚 life and work. Laird created 560 photographic glass plates of the missing stars Herschel spotted, featuring them in her new audio-visual installation An Imperfect Account of a Comet.
Laird says she intends her work to represent 鈥渁ll the women whose groundbreaking knowledge and wisdom has been overlooked, undervalued, and ignored throughout history鈥�.
Pictured are some of these plates, showing stars located in the constellations of Gemini (top image), Monoceros (middle image) and Cygnus (pictured above).
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Shown top right is volume two of Flamsteed鈥檚 Historiae Coelestis, which Herschel used in her studies and also corrected; top left is a page of her observational journal; and pictured above is her copy of a map of the constellation Cetus, from Flamsteed鈥檚 Atlas Coelestis.
An Imperfect Account of a Comet runs at in the UK from 18 November 2022 until 16 April 2023.
