TRAVERSE CITY -- A project almost seven years in the making is about to bring the Astronomy Department at Northwestern Michigan College some well deserved recognition.
Astronomy Professor Jerry Dobek said, "An idea from my Ph. D. Prof. was to maybe bring back to life Edward Emerson Barnard's Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, and I finally completed that. We've gone to print and is now available. So, something that began as an idea, just go ahead and republish this book, I found out was a lot more work than just the idea itself; putting it together."
Professor Dobek worked closely with Cambridge University Press to produce a detailed reproduction of the collector's item, including high resolution images of the original photographic plates and charts. He even created a new font that matched the original print.
Dobek said, "So, it serves as a great book for amateur astronomers, a great resource for professional astronomers and bringing back a piece of lost history. So, that book will now live on for a millenium of years instead of just disappearing in public libraries or private institutions."
There are just over 300 copies that remain from the 700 that were first printed in 1927, but thousands of copies will be available of this new edition by the end of next month.
If you would like to purchase a copy, click here.
