Technical Images in Astronomy in Argentina since the Late Nineteenth Century

RIEZNIK MARINA

Bologna

Conferencia; 9th Conference of European Society for the History of Science Conference. Visual, Material and Sensory Cultures of Science; 2020

European Society for the History of Science

This talk aims to understand the context of production and circulation of a set of photographic plates, graphic records and astronomical drawings made in Argentina between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. I will consider not only the traditions of scientific work differentiated according to the rivalry between nations, but the problems of uneven and combined development of the participating nations in the framework of international astronomical work. I will examine two international scientific works that had astronomical records made in Argentina and that required the preparation of technical images. In 1882, French missions sent to Argentina for the observation of the transit of Venus took several photographs, made drawings and recorded chronograph on paper tapes as part of the data corpus of the event. In Rio Negro a total of 90 photographic plates were obtained, in Chubut 562 and in Santa Cruz 206. Five years later, the same working networks were promoting a photographic project in France, the Carte du Ciel, which would have the participation of both the Observatory La Plata as the Observatory of Cordoba in Argentina. I will show the fluctuating nature of the epistemic value of the different images (celestial maps, drawings, graphic records and photos) in the elaboration of the results of astronomical work networks of the time.